Introduction
In spring 2024, Universities UK began work on what would become our blueprint.
Our focus
This report sets out a bold package of reform to stabilise, mobilise and then maximise the contribution of UK universities to economic growth and widening opportunity for all.
It has a single aim: to create a UK university sector that is better in ten years’ time than it is today.
Our recommendations
Each chapter offers recommendations for universities and for government. Through the actions set out here, we aim to achieve five big shifts:
- expand opportunity
- improve collaboration
- generate stronger local growth
- secure our future research strength
- establish a new global strategy for our universities.
To enable these shifts, we need to:
- put universities on a firm financial footing
- streamline regulation
- improve how the impact of the universities is assessed
Each of the eight chapters in the blueprint address one of these shifts. They were developed by a set of expert groups, each of which had an independent commissioner to define and shape the challenges and solutions.
We stand at a fork in the road in the history of the UK’s universities. There is now a clear choice. We can allow our distinguished, globally competitive higher education and research system to slide into decline. Or we can act together, as institutions and with government, to ensure that our universities are able to deliver for the nation into the 2030s.
Professor Dame Sally Mapstone DBE FRSE
Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews and President of Universities UK