HEPI / Advance HE breakfast seminar: Is specialisation or collaboration the key to the future of higher education?
Overview
On Wednesday 11 March, HEPI and Advance HE host their second in-person seminar of the 2026 series at the Houses of Parliament.
The Westminster Government’s Post-16 Education and Skills white paper suggested a move towards greater specialisation and more collaboration, moving away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Institutions across the higher education sector are now grappling with what this means in practice and whether it should affect their future strategies.
What would a new approach mean for existing cold spots, student choice, institutional structures, shared services and regional research and innovation capacity?
Speakers
Professor David Sweeney CBE
Deputy Chair, Medr
Alex Proudfoot
Chief Executive, Independent Higher Education
Professor Deborah Prentice
Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge
Alistair Jarvis CBE (Chair)
Chief Executive, Advance HE
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Comments
Jonathan Alltimes says:
The universities should know, as Universities UK stated, the universities had some control over the white paper, but the International Student Levy seems not have been foreseen. Less government funding for student loans, teaching and research will cause universities to review their competitiveness and which specialisms to fund. Collaboration could mean coordination with further education colleges and employers or it could mean mergers, of which coordination with the technical excellence colleges is the prime example. A large-scale sectorally-focused research institutes is the best option for each region, where an industry dominates and could be coordinated with the technical excellence colleges. Universities with the cash flow from own investments and endowments will have the most flexibility. Apart from specialisms chosen for the lifelong learning entitlement funded from the levy, there seems to be no other government funding of interest to the universities. It used to be the situation many decades ago, that major regional employers with growth potential would coordinate training with further education colleges, now we seem to need to have endless government reforms of the qualifications and coordination apparatus.
” Technologies, Products and Organization in the Innovating Firm: What Adam Smith Tells Us and Joseph Schumpeter Doesn’t.”
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Barbara Gautier says:
It is such an interesting topic! I look forward to hearing more about it.
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