Bold leadership now needed for UK's universities to survive

UK UNIVERSITIES are facing one of the most turbulent periods in their history with student recruitment down, costs rising and a decline in the international education market.

- DYLAN JONES-EVANS

While public trust in higher education institutions has been steadily eroding, the response from many university leaders has been worryingly predictable: namely cutting courses, announcing redundancies, hoping things improve, and carrying on as if nothing has really changed.

But everything has changed and what's needed now isn’t cautious crisis management but bold leadership that deals with the growing set of competing demands from staff, students, governments and the wider public. So why do so many vice chancellors run these institutions as if they’re still operating in a world of predictable funding, unquestioned autonomy and no accountability? Most businesses facing this volatility wouldn’t have acted in the way universities have behaved. Instead, they'd reorganise, reprioritise and double down on clear strategic delivery and that is exactly what higher education must do if it wants to survive the next few years.

Indeed, the best-run organisations in both the public or private sectors share a common set of disciplines that drive clarity, resilience and results. If vice chancellors adopted even half of these, many of the governance failures, financial meltdowns and cultural breakdowns we're seeing across the sector could have been avoided. First and foremost, university leaders must start with having a clear strategic direction, which means not having some opaque “2030 strategy” but a coherent three-year vision and institutional goals. It also means working closely with staff to develop and deliver that strategy to ensure it serves students, employers and the institution's mission.