University Alliance has made its submission to the Treasury ahead of this year’s Spending Review.
The submission highlights how professional and technical universities are critical to delivering the government’s decade of renewal, and focuses on three of the government’s missions: kickstarting economic growth, building an NHS fit for the future and breaking down the barriers to opportunity.
Mindful of the extremely tight fiscal environment, UA has highlighted what government should protect and prioritise in the Spending Review period to maximise the national contribution of professional and technical universities in the most cost-effective manner possible:
1.
To kickstart economic growth, the government should protect:
- The record, long-term funding committed for research and development (including Quality-Related funding and Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF).
To kickstart economic growth, the government should prioritise:
- Cutting the cost and burden of higher education regulation.
- Giving universities autonomy over their pensions, for example by reviewing HE participation in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) and removing the requirement for higher education corporations in England to offer access to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) to new employees.
- Reprofiling Student Loan Company payments to align better with the delivery of teaching and training and provide an even balanced cashflow to universities.
- Increasing the UK’s market share of international students and transnational education (TNE).
- Using local growth plans to refocus ‘levelling up’ funding on economic growth.
- Ensuring professional and technical universities have a seat at the table when developing sector plans, for example for the creative industries and the NHS.
2.
To build an NHS fit for the future, the government should protect:
- The ambition to develop clear healthcare workforce targets developed through improved modelling and stakeholder engagement in the refreshed NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
To build an NHS fit for the future, the government should prioritise:
- Convening a cross-government health education task force to end the workforce crisis
- Improving recruitment and retention of nurses through uprating the Learning Support Fund (LSF) and implementing a new student loan forgiveness scheme in exchange for time served.
- Reforming outdated regulation that prevents universities from training more healthcare professionals.
3.
To break down the barriers to opportunity, the government should protect:
- Funding for degree apprenticeships, including Level 7 apprenticeships in strategically important sectors such as healthcare and construction.
To break down the barriers to opportunity, the government should prioritise:
- Reforming the national curriculum and assessment system to ensure as many students as possible progress to and achieve at level 3.
