King's College London

A new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), sponsored by the Policy Institute at King's College London, titled Four futures: Shaping the future of higher education in England looks beyond individual and short-term funding challenges to consider the long-term future of higher education in England during the general election campaign. 

England's universities are facing serious financial challenges due to pressures on three of their main income streams – a flat undergraduate fee cap, unsustainable research funding, and pressures on international student recruitment. While it's well-known that this is imposing tough choices on individual universities, too little attention has been paid to what this means for the long-term size and shape of the university sector.

The author, Professor Sir Chris Husbands, the former vice-chancellor at Sheffield Hallam University, develops four plausible scenarios for the future of English higher education and examines what they could mean for students, universities, and the government.

In his Foreword to the Report, Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor & President of King’s College London, writes:

"UK universities are held in high esteem all over the world – envied for their excellence and widely emulated. But despite their stellar reputation, they are currently experiencing some of the greatest funding challenges and most strident questioning of their role that they have ever faced. Against this backdrop, and with a general election around the corner, this report could not have arrived at a more important moment. …

The paper is vital reading for those who want to understand how fine the balance is between a sector that will spend the next decade reacting haphazardly to recurrent crises in institutional finances and purpose, and one that is able to forge a path towards being a key part of the UK’s future success. At its core, the paper highlights how different the outcomes could look depending on how urgently and actively any new government engages with universities in reimagining the sector."

Join our panel on 25 June, 12.30-1.30 pm with Prof. Sir Chris Husbands, Dame Margaret Hodge, Nick Hillman, and Prof. Shitij Kapur (chair) to discuss the report. 

Find out more and register.