Labour promises ‘secure future’ for ‘crisis-hit’ universities

The Labour Party has committed to creating a “secure future” for the UK higher education sector that it recognises is in “crisis”, in a manifesto that otherwise gives few clues as to how it would approach this challenge in government.

Closer integration with other forms of skills training and a confirmation that short funding cycles for research and development would be scrapped in favour of 10-year budgets were also included in the 133-page document published on 13 June by the party that is being widely tipped to regain power.

The manifesto accuses the Conservative Party of “years of chronic mismanagement” of the education system that has left it “struggling to cope”, adding that “higher education is in crisis” and “too many of our young people leave school unprepared for the future”.

“The current higher education funding settlement does not work for the taxpayer, universities, staff, or students,” it says.

“Labour will act to create a secure future for higher education and the opportunities it creates across the UK. We will work with universities to deliver for students and our economy.”

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The party, which fought the last general election on a promise to scrap tuition fees, has this time left the door open to raising them if it gets into power but stopped short of making any commitments in the document.

“Labour will continue to support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university,” the manifesto says, signalling a change of tone from the current Conservative government, which has expressed unease at the number of people entering higher education, calling some degree programmes a “rip-off”.

The Labour document does, however, call for closer integration between further and higher education and commits to developing a “comprehensive strategy for post-16 education” that would include a guarantee that all 18- to 21-year-olds are offered training, an apprenticeship or help to find work.

A new body, Skills England, will be created, and skills funding will be devolved regionally to “empower local leaders to have greater control of skills development in their areas”.

Under a Labour government, the manifesto says, the apprenticeship levy paid by employers would become a “flexible growth and skills levy”.

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The strategy will also “set out the role for different providers, and how students can move between institutions, as well as strengthening regulation”, the manifesto says, adding that “we will act to improve access to universities and raise teaching standards”.

Away from teaching, the manifesto says Labour would “scrap short funding cycles for key R&D institutions in favour of 10-year budgets that allow meaningful partnerships with industry to keep the UK at the forefront of global innovation” and would “work with universities to support spin-outs”.

Speaking at the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) conference, Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, highlighted that all the polls show Labour heading for a large majority in the election.

The lack of any substantive commitment on higher education funding “suggests to me that they are aware there is a problem, and they want to keep their options open in terms of solving it”, he said.

“The problem will be there are a hundred dumpster fires, and who gets the fire extinguisher first is going to be difficult”, Professor Ford said, adding that the sector would have to show that its problems could also cause issues in healthcare, housing and early years education as it trains the practitioners in all these areas.

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said there was not much in Labour’s manifesto on education, and that it remains to be seen what Sir Keir Starmer means by “finding a fairer way” of funding.

Assuming that Labour forms the next government, he said, it would be a particularly difficult few years for the higher education sector because it would be quite low down the “pecking order” in the new chancellor’s thinking.

“All of education, further education apart, has had a much less serious time of cuts than, for example, social care,” he told delegates at the Hepi conference.

“There’s a sense that despite the undoubted issues it’s facing, higher education won’t necessarily be at the front of the queue.”

Mr Johnson said politicians of all sides would argue that if they kick-start economic growth, things would be a lot easier – and that this would be the best way for the sector to make the case for improved funding to a Labour government.

“My sense is that this is going to be a government absolutely, relentlessly focused on growth, with a very different perspective to 2019, when the priority was to get rid of student fees. I don’t see that happening at all.

“If there is money to be expended, I don’t think most of that will be on making graduate repayments any less.”

Reacting to the manifesto launch, Nick Harrison, the chief executive of education charity the Sutton Trust, said it was “encouraging that much of Labour’s growth narrative focuses on skills and jobs for the future and creating opportunity across the regions”, but he criticised the lack of “concrete plans” on how it would “ease the huge challenges students face in making ends meet while studying”.

The University and College Union’s general secretary, Jo Grady, said Labour would have to “deliver radical solutions to the systemic crises facing our colleges and universities”, adding that the “higher education funding model is broken beyond repair” and that it was “not a crisis that can be dealt with on the cheap”.

“We need to sweep away tuition fees, as Keir Starmer pledged to do, and replace them with sustained, long-term public funding. Anything less would be a continuation of sticking-plaster politics,” she said.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com