Royal Holloway and St George’s revive merger talks

Two University of London member institutions have agreed to revive merger talks, more than a decade after dropping the plan.

The governing bodies of Royal Holloway, University of London and St George’s, University of London said that they had agreed to progress discussions, which began this summer. “The final decision on whether or not to merge is expected to be reached by the end of 2021,” the institutions said.

The Tooting-based medical school and the Egham-based university first announced plans for a merger in 2008, but scrapped the proposal a year later in the face of funding uncertainties driven by the financial crisis at the end of that decade. However, the institutions have continued to work closely together.

In a statement announcing the renewal of merger talks, the governing bodies said that they had “resolved to gather views from relevant stakeholders, including members of academic board for Royal Holloway and senate for St George’s, and the students’ unions”.

“From positions of strength, a merger between Royal Holloway and St George’s will offer the possibility of a strong, dual excellence university, drawing on broad disciplinary strengths that will increase visibility, impact and international reach,” said Royal Holloway principal Paul Layzell.

“A merged university will be able to offer more innovative, interdisciplinary, research-enriched learning and teaching, drawing on complementary disciplinary strengths, to meet future education demand, and support an outstanding student experience.”

Jenny Higham, the principal of St George’s, said that a merger “offers the potential to create a strong, research-intensive anchor university for the south-west of London”.

“The possibility of a merger between Royal Holloway and St George’s was considered in 2009. Since then, the complementary nature of our discipline mix has grown stronger and the landscape of higher education has changed considerably,” she said.

“While there are challenges to work through, the compelling offer that a combined university would represent for today’s students, together with the significant opportunities evident in our discipline complementarity, validates our decision to re-engage on the possibility of uniting our two universities.”

The institutions said that they had set up a joint governance group composed of their chairs and principals, members of their senior management teams and representatives of the governing body, to oversee discussions.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com