General Election
1. The upcoming General Election has dominated HE policy in May. With Parliament dissolved and Government unable to publish reports due to Purdah, most focus has been on what different political parties are promising for universities in their manifestos, and what HE representative bodies are calling for.
Manifestos
2. The election manifestos for all the main parties were published in May, in advance of the General Election on 8 June. Key elements relating to universities from the different manifestos are shown below.
3. HE-related commitments from the
include:
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Requirement for universities to sponsor academy schools or found free schools
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Major funding review of tertiary education
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Increasing R& D funding by £4.7B (as already announced in 2016 Autumn Statement)
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New university investment funds, to help commercialise research
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Net migration target less than 100,000 p.a.; students remain within this.
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Tougher visa requirements for international students, both to study and to stay on afterwards
4. HE-related commitments from the
include:
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Abolition of university tuition fees and reintroduction of maintenance grants
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A National Education Service – as part of a move towards cradle to grave learning which is free at the point of use
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Seeking to remain part of Horizon 2020 (and successors), Erasmus, Euratom and the European Medicines Agency as part of Brexit negotiations
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Immediate guarantee of rights of EU citizens to remain in the UK
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No immigration targets, and students taken out of immigration numbers
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Meeting 3% OECD target for R&D by 2030
5. HE-related commitments from the
include:
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Reintroduction of maintenance grants for the poorest students, and student nurse bursaries
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Remaining part of Horizon 2020 (and successors), Erasmus, Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions
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A referendum on the terms of the UK’s departure from the EU once negotiated
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Unilateral guarantee of rights of EU citizens to remain in the UK
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Removal of students from migration statistics
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Reinstatement of post-study work visas for STEM graduates and those funding work within 6 months
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Protection of the science budget (including the recent Autumn Statement increase), raising it in line with inflation
6.                 Other Manifestos have been published, including
,
,
and the
.
HE representative bodies – election priorities
7. Universities UK set out its
on 4 May. It has five priorities:
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Securing an effective post-Brexit settlement for universities
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Supporting universities in their role as anchors for growth in local economies
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Increasing funding for science, research and innovation to match our competitors
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Supporting world-leading teaching, student experience and improving outcomes
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An effective immigration system
8.  A similar list was produced by the
and
. The Campaign for Science and Engineering produced a
, under 6 themes of culture, people, investment, diversity, connectivity and infrastructure. They wrote
to each of the main party leaders asking a series of questions about how an incoming Government would support science and engineering, and have published replies from,
, the
, the
, the
and
.
EU Research Funding
9. On 24 May, the four UK National Academies (Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, British Academy and Academy of Medical Sciences) published
on the role of EU funding in UK research and innovation. Some of the findings of the report include:
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Since 2014, UK organisations have received around €1.1bn p.a. in a combination of Horizon 2020 and EDRF funds. This is more than 10% of total UK Government expenditure on R&D.
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UK HEIs received around £725m in EU research grant income in 2014/15, around 25% of research grants received by HEIs from UK Government bodies (excluding QR).
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The top 5 disciplines to receive EU grants in absolute value were clinical medicine (€120m), biosciences (€91m), physics (€55m), chemistry (€55m) and IT (€46m).
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However, the relative importance of EU grants (as a percentage of total research grants) is higher in the social sciences – the top 5 disciplines here were archaeology (38%), classics (33%), IT (30%), media studies (27%) and Law (26%).
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The top 5 HEIs to receive EU grants in 2014/15 in absolute numbers were Oxford (£60m), Cambridge (£59m), UCL (£45m), Imperial (£42m) and Edinburgh (£26m)
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The top 5 HEIs to receive EU grants in 2014/15 as a percentage of total research grants were Goldsmiths (61%), Middlesex (51%), South Wales (41%), Birmingham City (40%) and Anglia Ruskin (40%).
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EU sources provide 17% of the R&D funding for UK SMEs.
Guardian University Guide
10. The
were published on 16th May. The top five Universities in the ranking are Cambridge, Oxford, St Andrews, Durham and Bath. The ÃÛÌÒTV was placed 35th, with two individual subjects rated in the top five nationally (Civil Engineering and Electronic & Electrical Engineering).
Universitas 21 Ranking of Higher Education Systems 2017
11.  The
assesses national higher education systems as a whole (rather than individual institutions). The top five countries overall are: the USA, Switzerland, the UK, Denmark and Sweden.
UCU Report – Gender pay gap
12.   The University and College Union published
on 25 May on the gender pay gap in UK universities. The data show an overall mean gender pay gap in 2015/16 of 12.0% for academic staff and 9.9% for non-academic staff, with the widest gender pay gap at senior management level. Only 23.9% of staff at professorial level were women. At the current rate of change in the gender pay gap, the report concludes that it could take 40 years to close the gap.
Gavin Costigan
Director, Public Policy|Southampton
