

Last updated on Tuesday 20 Dec 2022 at 10:26pm
The Government and the higher education sector must jointly take action to ensure universities across all four nations of the UK are able to play a central role in the recovery of the economy and communities following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Universities are central to developing skills, knowledge and research, and driving regeneration, social mobility and innovation. Today a package of measures has been proposed by Universities UK to government outlining the actions needed to be ensure universities can weather the serious financial challenges posed by COVID-19.
A paper from Universities UK sent to the Chancellor, Secretaries of State for Education and Business, and to the Ministers for Universities and Science, Research & Innovation, highlights the significant risk that the impact and capacity of higher education could be severely damaged without mitigations and support.
There are both short and long-term impacts currently facing universities:
Without proactive action from both institutions and support from government, Universities UK warns that some universities would likely face financial failure, with severe impacts on their students, staff, local community and regional economy. Others would come close and be forced to reduce provision for students or to significant scale back research activities and capacity.
Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive of Universities UK, said:
“The package of measures we have proposed today will support universities across all four nations of the UK to ensure that they remain able to weather the very serious financial challenges posed by COVID-19. It will help to protect the student interest, to maintain research capacity, to prevent institutions failing and maintain the capacity to play a central role in the recovery of the economy and communities following the crisis.
“Universities have already made a huge contribution to the national effort to fight Covid-19 and moving forward will act collectively and responsibly to promote sector-wide financial stability in these challenging times and help the country to get back on its feet and people to rebuild their lives.”
The specific measures proposed in the UUK paper will:
UUK’s paper also provides a commitment to universities doing everything they can to reduce costs and further increase efficiency through strong actions such as recruitment freezes and new tighter controls on spending. When paired with this package of government support it will mean the higher education sector can maintain capacity to play its vital part in the difficult period ahead for the nation.