by Conor Ryan
Universities secretary John Denham said that Government was keen to avoid short-term funding decisions in the light of the recession. Ministers would – both in the run-up to the Budget and afterwards – want to consider funding for the sector in broad terms over a five-year period and would want to work with the sector to develop this.
Funding would not just come from Government, but also from fees and other private sources. But society also had to be convinced of the value of higher education.
Mr Denham’s comments came in response to a question from Universities UK President Rick Trainor in the Q&A session after the Secretary of State’s address to the conference.
In his speech, Mr Denham gave a strong reassurance about the autonomy of universities and the need to avoid attaching too many strings to funding, but he urged universities to benchmark potential efficiencies with each other.
“I do not want a funding system that creates fixed groups within the higher education world,” he said. “We should not centrally prescribe roles for individual universities. But I want to provide more incentives for dynamism, innovation and entrepreneurial activism.”
He suggested that there might be fewer centrally held funds in future, though some strategic funding remained important. But there might also be more contested funding like the Economic Challenge Investment Fund.
Universities and colleges needed to play their part in a public sector drive for greater efficiency. “We do not attempt to determine the operating practices of higher education institutions,” he said. ”But as the spotlight shines on other parts of the public sector, you should be making best use of the benchmarking data available to you on cost effectiveness and efficiencies.”
Mr Denham also touched on pay in the sector. ”The higher education sector needs to be sensitive to what is going on in the wider world,” he said. “When the fees review comes, it is bound to ask how effective has been the use of the monies raised to date.”
Delegates responded warmly to the Secretary of State’s speech. His message that Government wanted to develop a longer-term funding strategy would have been welcome to many.
But it also implied a need for the sector to ensure it was doing all it could to be responsive and efficient. And that was something of which delegates had seemed particularly aware in discussions over the previous couple of days. It left them to go home on an optimistic note, but also in little doubt about the challenges they faced.
