Universities UK worked in partnership with GuildHE (previously the Standing Conference of Principals (SCOP)), the three United Kingdom funding councils for higher education Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) (previously the Scottish Funding Council for Higher Education (SHEFC))} and the Northern Ireland Department for Employment and Learning to establish a Leadership Foundation.

The January 2003 Department for Education and Skills (DfES) White Paper The Future of Higher Education (section 7.4) announced that Universities UK and HEFCE had proposed the creation of the Foundation to identify and meet key leadership and management needs across the sector. The Foundation aims to be a high profile, world-class enterprise drawing on the best international expertise. It will also take forward the key recommendations of the Lambert Review, announced by the Chancellor in November 2002, on how leadership and management can best support links between higher education and business.

Universities UK and GuildHE see the Foundation as helping the sector to the meet the challenges of the future. The Leadership Foundation was launched in Spring 2004."

For further details please see http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/