- This blog has been written for HEPI by Alistair Lomax, Director of the Arc Universities Group, a collaboration between the universities in the Oxford-to-Cambridge region and the author of Stronger Together: Challenges of devolved regional economic development (HEPI Report 178).
The idea of a growth corridor between Oxford and Cambridge announced today is not new. Our region was fortunate with the announcements today: being ready, and in the right place at the right time armed with a good piece of policy background from Public First and Rachel Wolf.
While it has had many changes of name and cast, the idea of connecting this region has been around for at least 25 years. The idea has waxed and waned as it has acted as the poster child for Coalition, Tory and now Labour governments. It is estimated the Corridor could boost the economic contribution of the region by up to £78 billion, so has formed the centrepiece of the speech on growth given by Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. The Chancellor is going for growth in the Oxford-to-Cambridge Growth Corridor (formerly known as the Corridor, Arc, Region and now Corridor) with the ingredients of world-class companies with world-class talent and research and development.
It may even feel as if the Arc Universities Group – ‘working together towards inclusive and sustainable economic growth in an area of designated national economic significance’ – was formed in 2018 in anticipation of such a moment. This is a very long-term project which promises to bear fruit in 30-to-50 years. Universities are able to understand and span such timeframes. My own involvement, for a mere seven years, is transitory and many others have come and gone.
The universities in our region, and the relationships that they enjoy with industry and others, have played a pivotal role. There are several reasons for this, including:
- We have been able to act as the honest broker and use our convening power to bring together people and conversations.
- There has been a lot to learn as we face adaptive and existential challenges and these are the stock of universities.
- We are largely independent in our actions, able to tell it how it is, free from the pressures of the electoral cycle or the vicissitudes of policy change.
- Our universities have maturity of governance and stability of leadership, with vice-chancellors serving for at least five years, whereas Secretaries of State sometimes last only a few weeks.
- The region, like many others, hosts a great diversity of institutions. The missions of our members are complementary in their offering.
- There is significant scale and influence with universities often being the biggest employers. With the benefit of money from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), we have been able to act quickly and take risks that others have not and we have been able to hold the space while other processes catch up.
- We have developed a great interface with industry and the private sector.
- Partnerships: Perhaps the most valuable outcome of working in the wings for so many years is the alliances that have been formed between actors. We have formed a strategic alliance with East West Rail, with the private sector and with the sub-regional transport body, as well as the pan-regional partnership.
- More recently we have cemented the relationship between universities and the private sector, in the formation of the Supercluster Board.
As our Chair, Alistair Fitt, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and Chair of the Arc Universities Group, has reflected:
This region hosts a great diversity and scale of universities. Together we offer a wide range of key contributions: globally renowned research brilliance, the powerhouse of skills provision provided by cutting edge teaching, world-class knowledge transfer and commercialisation. Our universities, working in close partnership, in alliance with others – particular the private sector – are organised into the Arc Universities Group. We stand ready for the challenge. We welcome the oversight and experience that the leadership of Sir Patrick Vallance brings to the region, and we look forward to helping deliver the Chancellor’s aspirations for growth.
The Supercluster Board (SCB) has been formed to ensure the UK can achieve its ambition to become a science and technology superpower. The SCB comprises a group of globally recognised scientific enterprises, investors and world-leading universities alongside the local enterprise partnerships, all of which have a vested interest in the region and will seek to work constructively with a wide range of stakeholders, including the UK Government, to deliver on the ambition for the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.
There is significant representation on this new group, with four university representatives on the main board, including Alistair Fitt, and with an expert panel comprising all the vice-chancellors or their near proxy. It is the private sector voice that has succeeded in landing the message about the region’s potential with Rachel Reeves.
I’m grateful to the many colleagues who have kept the faith. It is not always been easy, especially given the recent financial constraints, but the future looks promising and we can be greatly encouraged by the Chancellor’s recognition of the potential. The next challenge will be to see how we all deliver under the sudden power of the spotlight that will inevitably follow the announcements.
The photo accompanying this blog on the HEPI website is taken from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oxford-cambridge-arc/oxford-cambridge-arc
More gold in the golden triangle is hardly either a strategy for growth. This is especially true given the inevitable barriers or the evidence that the golden triangle and the wider South East already consumes a vastly disproportionate share of U.K. public funding for research. There are two fundamental weaknesses in this approach. First, costs for everything from land, through construction to wages are vastly higher than anywhere else in the country. Second, this inevitably means everywhere else in the country from the South West, Midlands, North and the three other nations will pay the price. This is despite research and development cost being lower and capabilities being at least as good. We need more bang for the buck not more politicians dining at high table. Yes Minister had it right!
Basically came here to say the same. The opportunity is going to those who will use it but with less impact in wider communities than would have been the case elsewhere.
Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister should be compulsory viewing!