Lessons for UK universities from the Australian experience

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The writer is president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester and former deputy vice-chancellor of Sydney University

Since arriving from Australia in August, I’ve found the debate about higher education in the UK to be reminiscent of the parable involving three blind men and an elephant. Stumbling through the jungle, they encounter a large obstacle. The first, finding its trunk, thinks it is a water hose. The second, feeling its large, flat ears, thinks they are fans. The third, climbing the vast torso, thinks he has ascended a throne.

Much like these blind men, we seem to be grasping at different parts of a complex system, each seeing only a fragment of the whole. This parable came to mind after attending my first conference held by Universities UK, our umbrella body, in Reading this month. The mood was a mixture of gloom and faint hope — amid all the unhappiness around higher education, the new government has at least tried to steady the ship by stopping the hostile rhetoric and seeking partnerships with universities rather than picking fights.

Discrete issues such as student finance, course quality and funding models are regularly debated. But while these are important, we risk, like the blind men, mistaking crisis management for reform. To gain perspective, we can look at what is happening elsewhere where other university systems are struggling with similar issues — and take lessons in terms of both what we might do, and what we shouldn’t.

We can learn something from Australia, where the incoming Labor government in 2022 launched a universities “Accord” process that sought to map out major reforms for the sector over decades, rather than just the next political cycle. The language is interesting. Calling it an Accord harked back to an era of major economic and industrial reform in the 1980s, led by then prime minister Bob Hawke. Unions, business and civil society were brought together around the table to chart a new plan for growth.

At the heart of the final report, published in February this year, is a vision for the higher education system to 2050, and one that leans heavily into an inclusive growth agenda. There are two key components.

The first has to do with participation and opportunity. The Accord sets a target for 80 per cent of working-age Australians to have a tertiary qualification by 2050, and 55 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds to have a bachelors degree or above — significantly higher than now in both Australia and the UK.

In addition to proposing that the number of government-supported places should double, the Accord focuses on improving access to higher education for the most disadvantaged through additional needs-based funding. These groups have benefited least from the expansion of student places and future economic growth will require them to participate in the economy at unprecedented levels.

The second component regards research but is less well-developed. It is at least bracingly honest about how an over-reliance on international student fees to prop up the country’s research efforts is unacceptably risky. And it recommends a “pathway” to funding the full economic costs of research. But it leaves the details to future discussion.

Of course, politics inevitably shapes the possibilities for reform. And so, despite taking the long view about the future of higher education, the very same Australian Labor government has — in recent weeks and driven by a toxic domestic debate about immigration — introduced legislation to cap international student numbers. This threatens to undermine much of the good will the Accord process inaugurated.

There is a risk the same thing could happen in the UK, given the summer’s eruption of civil unrest and broader anxieties about migration expressed during the general election and the current Conservative party leadership campaign.

So what are the key lessons for Britain? Just as Australia needs to do more than dig things out of the ground, the UK needs to adjust to a world in which it is no longer as wealthy as it once was. It needs to become more innovative and its economy more complex. As Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said, if something promotes growth, it goes in the “yes” column for investment. Universities are in that column.

In Manchester, we’ve seen the benefits of deep collaboration between universities, city and regional governments, industry and community associations. It combines clear, place-based priorities with globally recognised excellence. We think this offers a powerful vision for the future.

But it’s just one piece of the puzzle. To truly see the whole “elephant” of higher education reform, we need a comprehensive, long-term strategy for the next 50 years not just the next 50 days.