Whitehall sits becalmed. A listless cruising yawl without a flutter of the sails, nodding over small waves, going nowhere. The Thames stretches out before it like the beginning of an interminable waterway. All on board anxiously await the arrival of the invisible, unknowable and unpredictable gust to fill its sails and drive the ship of government forward on a new bearing.
What does this mean for the UK’s HE sector? Hard to tell.
The enormous uncertainty of access to future European research funds, colleagues and infrastructure from the start of the coming academic year sits brooding and motionless. An inky, occasionally rumbling cloud formation getting neither closer nor farther away. This epic threat to our sector can only be accepted. The new normal. Baked in. In our immobility we can only stare at it in awe of its horror for a moment or two before needing to look away.
But don’t worry: there is more than one cloud on the horizon to settle our gaze upon.
Equally enormous in its potential implications, the Augar Review sits completed, the fate of sector contained in its recommendations, somewhere under lock and key in the bowels of DfE. Its contents remain unknown and dreaded. Perhaps it will turn out to be a papier-mache Mephistopheles, little more than a knee jerk response to an retail politics election miss-fire from a failed PM. But that’s for the future - currently it is informed by rumour, kite flying leaks to the Times and a 100 university COO’s broken nights’ sleep filled with imaginings of quite what would happen to planned surplus, capital spending and loan repayments if fees were to fall by a third overnight.
In the shadow of these two hulking cumuli of despair the UK’s universities public affairs, press and VC political advisors gathered to share tools on influencing policymakers. The timing seemed apt. Because you can never be too good at your job I snuck in to see if there weren’t some exciting new tools that I could borrow. Public Policy|Southampton’s remit to enhance the local, national and international policy impact of research means that we are continually looking for new ways to speak to policymakers from across governments of all shapes and sizes. We aim to support our researchers to build networks with policymakers so that decisions can be informed with excellent evidence. Giving confidence to those with the levers at their disposal to make change. The good folk at UUK and wonkHE met the challenge with a day of briefings , demonstrations of what good looks like, a splash of colourful political insight from the Times Red Box editor Matt Chorley and hearty dollop of polling data from ComRes on what MPs want and what they say they want when engaging with universities.
From the broad range of breakout sessions on offer the civic universities thread appealed most. The current Universities minister has made frequent impassioned speeches urging universities to focus on the communities in which they reside. Of course, universities have been doing that since their inception but the ‘civic universities’ agenda offers an opportunity to bring that work together and to develop strategies to do more. Contrary to the bleak big picture outlook, as ever with our vibrant sector there were many stories of great engagement leading to positive outcomes for researchers, communities and government. Examples of interdisciplinary research and globally innovative pedagogy, of Post-92’s working with Russell Group institutions in turn engaging with district councils, unitaries, combined authorities and devolved governments. Talking not just about the sheer economic clout that universities bring to our cities and regions, not just the jobs, the transport provision, the spin outs but about the differences to people’s lives. Working with schools to promote STEM and widen participation for young people from underrepresented groups. Co-funding of PhD placements to upskill public health officers. Arranging PhD placements with local authorities to offer access to methodological expertise and insight not available in their current spending envelope. Helping cities gain access to pots of funding out of reach without an academic partner.
Underpinning all of these activities was a tangible desire to help, as we say at Southampton, to ‘make the world a better place’. It’s clear we don’t have all the answers. Complementing this noble desire is acknowledgement of the need to be humble. Universities have been relatively well insulated against cuts to the organs of the State thanks to student fees, healthy levels of R&D spending and partnerships with business. Local government has fared less well over the last decade. But that doesn’t mean to say that we, as universities, don’t have a huge amount to learn from practitioners who have exemplified how to do more with less. To deliver truly civic universities an open, honest and transparent dialogue between stakeholders must be central values. The endeavour must have co-production at its core. We must ask what local government wants, and even help them articulate these wants, rather than prescribe solutions to the problems we perceive.
Coming away from the day I couldn’t help but feel enthused and re-energised at how we as a sector have a great capacity to do good. How long before the winds pick up again pushing on the ship of government onward and blowing away the current weather front remains stubbornly unclear…
Gareth Giles, Acting Head, Public Policy|Southampton