Universities in crisis: Russell Group Vice Chancellor issues grave higher education warning

Make no mistake, when the Vice-Chancellor of a world-renowned Russell Group university goes on record to warn that the country’s higher education sector faces an existential crisis, the stakes for learning could not be higher.

Universities in crisis: Russell Group Vice Chancellor issues grave higher education warning

Historically, the world has relied on the work of the United Kingdom’s universities, the discoveries made through their intensive research earning the country the reputation as a science superpower – the laboratory to the world.

Innovations that have been developed on the back of discoveries made within the four walls of UK universities have changed the course of history, from medicine to mechanics. Now, says Professor Charlie Jeffery, exclusively in this newspaper today, all of that is in peril.

Offering Government a pathway out of this crisis, Professor Jeffery has today outlined a comprehensive ten-point plan that will, if implemented swiftly, lead the higher education sector out of ruinous collapse. He begins by calling for ministerial and departmental leadership at Government level, underscoring the dire need for a single Government department, dedicated to further and higher education: one that can monitor, map and manage the myriad funding flows, offering financial rigour to teaching and learning establishments with modelling that provides long-term financial security.

He is joined, too, by the Vice-Chancellor of Bradford University, Shirley Congdon, who states the need for a task force to be set up immediately. One charged with analysing and articulating the challenge ahead of the formulation of dedicated ministerial oversight so that solutions are ready and waiting for deployment as soon as is practicable.

For if the interventions called for today in this newspaper do not materialise, the damage done to the reputation of our nation will be incalculable.