Leading figures from the higher education sector have warned that the sector is at a crossroads, as financial pressure bites while civic collaboration presents the opportunity for universities to becomes keystones of the places they serve.
The findings come from a series of high-level roundtables convened by the UPP Foundation on the role of universities in regional placemaking and local economies.
The roundtables in York, Bristol, London and Nottingham brought together leading figures from the UK’s higher education sector, representatives from local government and industry, and others interested in the civic university agenda.
Key findings from the roundtable series include:
- Connecting their contributions to their local places and economies offers universities a chance to root their institutions more firmly in their local areas, offering a path through wider political and economic instability
- Universities often cover imprecise geographies that don’t map neatly onto political structures. The Government’s push for greater devolution offers them a chance to act as a unifying power and a bridge between regions
- There is a need for universities to partner with their local councils to address the impact of students within communities and to identify opportunities to share their resources.
- Universities and their work can feel abstract and meaningless to their local communities unless translated effectively
The roundtables built on the UPP Foundation’s Kerslake Collection, a collection of essays published by the UPP Foundation in memory of Lord Bob Kerslake who chaired the UPP Foundation’s Civic University Commission (2018-19) and passed away in 2023.
Richard Brabner, Executive Chair of the UPP Foundation said:
“The higher education sector is under enormous pressure at the moment, but the civic university agenda offers a real opportunity. As the experts at our roundtables made clear, rooting institutions to their local places and economies offers them a clear path through instability, giving them the means to show their value to a wider audience.
“It’s essential that universities and civic organisations don’t recoil from this opportunity and face inwards, as this will only compound existing pressures.”
You can read the full report into the regional roundtables on the UPP Foundation website.
