Embrace outsourcing and consider sharing courses too, says v-c

UK universities need to stop coming up with reasons not to share services and consider whether collaboration can extend to swapping modules across institutions as well, according to a vice-chancellor.

A funding crisis in the higher education sector has forced what are often competitor providers into finding ways to collaborate, with many suggesting that joint back office functions is one way to save money.

The fact that VAT is added on to a shared service – meaning it costs an additional 20 per cent – is often held up as a barrier but Ken Sloan, vice-chancellor of Harper Adams University, said this was not insurmountable.

“On the shared services argument, the sector needs to stop acting like VAT is the issue, everything else is the issue,” Professor Sloan told Times Higher Education’s THE Campus Live event in Birmingham.

“If there are better organisations that can help you to deliver a more cost-effective and better-quality thing, clearly we should be thinking much more seriously about it.”

Professor Sloan, who previously worked for outsourcing firm Serco in between two stints at the University of Warwick, said he was given the “cold shoulder” and treated as an “alien” when attempting to have conversations with sector leaders, but felt there was a place for such organisations in the sector.

And he said that collaboration should not stop at back office functions but could extend to the courses universities offer as well.

“Looking at disciplinary coverage across the country, we should be looking at how we support each other,” Professor Sloan, who also chairs the mission group GuildHE, said.

“I know students at my institution would love to access other modules at other institutions as part of that.”

He said even just starting discussions about joint modules between institutions had proven complex but there were “plenty of ways the sector can make some meaningful change and retain the integrity of the institution”.

Professor Sloan said there was a willingness among universities to consider new ways of using their resources, but government had to offer an incentive “either positive or negative” or it would not happen.

“It is entirely right that we should be willing partners and envisage a different approach and system…But there does need to be some oil in the wheels” he added. 

“There’s a recognition in the NHS that it is going to take some funding to deliver transformation. There needs to be the same recognition if you want to deliver a tertiary education system at the end of it.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com