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New era of collaboration between universities to transform the sector and drive efficiency
Last updated on Tuesday 7 Jan 2025 at 11:43am
Sir Nigel Carrington, former international lawyer, business leader and Vice Chancellor, appointed to lead new taskforce
Universities UK has appointed Sir Nigel Carrington, former Vice Chancellor at University of the Arts London and international Mergers & Acquisitions lawyer, as the Chair of its Taskforce on Efficiency and Transformation in Higher Education.
The Taskforce will take an ‘all options on the table’ approach to how - after years of working to reduce costs individually – universities can partner, collaborate and deliver transformation and cost savings through new models and ways of working.
Sir Nigel will lead more than a dozen experts to consider detailed and radical options for cross-sector working and to produce comprehensive business cases for these.
Universities are clear on their shared responsibility with government to put the sector in the strongest possible position to support the needs of the country, and the Taskforce is evidence they are prepared to think radically to tackle the challenges they face.
The taskforce will examine the efficiencies made by the university sector in England in the past decade and make recommendations about what more can be achieved through collective action. It will identify opportunities to build on the sector’s long history of cost saving and improving student experience through partnership - as with UCAS, the sector-wide applications service.
Options under consideration will include systems and processes to drive down cost through the collective buying power of the university sector, shared delivery of some student facing services, and achieving greater consistency in the way universities operate to make collaboration simpler in future.
The taskforce will also support leaders at individual universities by sharing good practice in efficiency, transformation and income generation. This could include transformation of operating models, mergers and acquisitions, federated structures, future workforce planning and understanding how AI is likely to transform teaching, research and operations.
Alongside his significant private sector experience as a partner in a major international law firm and as Managing Director of McLaren Group, Sir Nigel was Vice Chancellor at University of the Arts London between 2008 and 2021. He led the transformation of UAL from a collection of six distinct arts, design and communications colleges operating under a shared university banner into a globally recognised institution. Under his leadership, UAL became one of the world’s leading universities for art and design. He also oversaw major capital projects, including the creation of a new campus for Central Saint Martins at King's Cross, the redevelopment of Camberwell College of Arts, and secured a new home for London College of Fashion in the heart of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
This critical work will usher in a new era of collaboration and cooperation between universities to drive even greater value to students and taxpayers.
"While institutions have been doing more and more to be as efficient as possible, they have largely been doing so at an individual level. Truly impactful transformation will best be delivered through partnership and collaboration at both a regional and a national level. It is time for some blue sky thinking on what that looks like.
“Transformation to reduce costs is not all we need though. Our work will drive meaningful change by creating evidence-led recommendations around working well together and being productive for the long-term.
Sir Nigel Carrington
Chair, Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce
Our universities are a global success story. They are also critical regional employers, engines of growth, and equip our future workforce with the skills the UK needs to thrive. To be fit for the future, they need both sustainable funding and a shared commitment to working together to unlock savings.
“While universities have continually adapted to do more with less, we need to think carefully, but creatively, about new opportunities and models. This work will allow us to learn from each other and to work in partnership to drive meaningful change.
“I am delighted Nigel will lead this ambitious programme of work. He has a wealth of experience in both the private sector and in higher education. He will bring together high-level commercial and restructuring experience with a deep understanding of our sector, underlined by his success in restructuring a very complex and devolved institution.
Professor Dame Sally Mapstone
President of UUK and Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of St Andrews
The dire situation we inherited means we have had to take tough decisions to fix the foundations of higher education and deliver change for students.
"I welcome the launch of the UUK taskforce and look forward to seeing innovative and robust proposals to help secure a sustainable future for higher education.
"This government remains committed to restoring universities as engines of growth, opportunity and aspiration, as we seek to break down barriers to opportunity through our Plan for Change.
Bridget Phillipson
Secretary of State for Education
Notes to editors
The Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce, first trailed in the UUK Blueprint to stabilise and reform the university sector, will comprise three strands:
- An analysis of how universities have become more efficient in the last decade and what the sector may need to respond to in the next, making a series of recommendations which will be published in 2025.
- Developing detailed business cases on options for national collaboration, which will be externally published, and will give the sector clear paths towards transformation
- Taking an ‘all options on the table’ approach to promote discussions around operational and business model change, including a sector summit on the topic in May 2025.
The University Transformation and Efficiency Summit will bring together leaders, innovators, and experts to explore transformative strategies with an ‘all options on the table’ approach with the aim to enable universities to thrive. From national collaboration and shared services to cultural leadership and income diversification, this summit will address key topics to guide institutions towards a sustainable future.
Book your place today and contribute to shaping the future of higher education.
About Sir Nigel
Nigel spent 27 years in the private sector before becoming Vice Chancellor of UAL in 2008. He brings together high level commercial and restructuring experience with a deep understanding of HE, underlined by his success in restructuring a very complex and devolved institution which, by the end of his tenure, had been recognised as one of the two globally leading universities of art and design, with an annual revenue of over £350m and a strong and consistent operating surplus.
In his first career, he was an international Mergers and Acquisitions lawyer and, in 1994, became the youngest London Managing Partner of a major corporate law firm. After four years in that role, he became a member of the Firm's International Executive Committee and Chairman of its European and Middle East Regional Council. He left to become the Managing Director of McLaren Group, the automotive technologies group, where his role included bringing its six operating companies together into a single new £250m Technology Centre.
When he joined University of the Arts London (UAL) in 2008, he took over responsibility for the integration of its six Colleges. The University brought together six distinctive and fiercely independent art, design, fashion and communications Colleges which, although part of one single institution for 20 years, had continued to operate in a devolved manner. Over the 13-year period of his tenure, the University was restructured, reducing its operating costs by increasing efficiencies and building its global reputation. Through a series of innovative land swaps and new development in previously underdeveloped parts of London (including King's Cross and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park), Nigel oversaw a transformative redevelopment programme which, on completion, will have invested nearly £1 billion into London and the Creative industries.
Nigel was a member of the UUK Board from 2015-2020 and led on behalf of UUK the tripartite merger of the three struggling HE sector agencies which became Advance HE. He was then asked by the Board of Advance HE to become its inaugural Chair and successfully steered it through a complex series of staff and senior management restructurings which resulted in it becoming financially sustainable on a much lower cost base.