Starting a conversation about our future

What we want to do with university_vision is start a conversation that begins to paint what the future could look like and to explore the issues and challenges facing universities in the future. We want to ask the big questions about where universities need to position themselves to deliver the knowledge, networks and places of the future.

It has been a dramatic few years for universities. There has been much debate and waiting, discussions and decisions made. However, very little of this has been led by the sector itself; university leaders and sector organisations have been consulted along the way but only in response to policy proposals, often late in the day, not tested or even after they are announced.

And the consequences of this process means we have been left with a sector unable to grow to meet demand, and with a lack of clarity about how universities fit within the wider economic and social vision what a university is for.  Staying within the current policy conversations means we will be playing the same game we have been playing for the past five years. We need a new game that is looking forwards and not backwards. We need to create a different paradigm for exploration, challenge and debate. Education is too important to be left without vision and passion.

Building a picture of our future

That is our ambition with university_vision. It is time we looked twenty years into the future to understand the challenges and opportunities for the UK and how those challenges will impact English universities, and decide what kind of a future is right for us, both economically and socially.

The idea is to create some visions of what higher education could look like. Fundamentally we want to do it differently from the usual way universities think about the future (locking themselves in a room, pulling the draw bridge up, having a huddle and saying “ok, what do we want to do”). We wanted to flip that. We recognise the need for rich engagement and collaboration, going way beyond the usual references we draw on to think about these issues. And therefore we need to engage with industry sectors, public services, universities across the sector, students and staff to make sure we are not losing any thinking in terms of future building.

We need to reference international thinking and be bold and creative in our vision.

We have drawn together a wide range of people to take part in our university_vision workshops from right across the university sector, business leaders, think tanks and beyond. We want to make the process as open as possible and will use the university_vision to allow anyone to feed in fresh ideas and thinking to the process.

Our future is going to look very different

Universities, like many organisations, don’t spend nearly as much time as they need to thinking about the future. We are locked in the here and now worrying about tactical, organisational responses to what is coming out of government and trying to work out how best to position ourselves in the short-term rather than in the long-term. What we hope this process will do is to start to take away some of the scales in front of our eyes at the moment. The future is going to look very different. What we need to work out is what that means for us now and engage with parliamentarians and funders to create that future.

Professor Steve West is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West of England and University Alliance’s chair elect.  

“HEIF is one of only a few funds that can be used as a leverage to secure funding from other sources for knowledge exchange.”

HEFCE’s recently published report; ‘Strengthening the Contribution of English Higher Education Institutions to the Innovation System: knowledge exchange and HEIF funding’, shows how universities have embedded knowledge exchange activities into the heart of their mission.

University’s knowledge exchange work is funded through a complex arrangement of sources, however the most significant contribution comes from HEFCE’s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) which drives much of the social and economic impact of the knowledge exchange work that takes place across universities.

HEFCE’s report shows why HEIF funding remains such an important funding source. They show why it has empowered universities to innovate and experiment with new models thanks to its flexibility and its ability to fund any form of knowledge exchange where other sources may come with far more strings attached.

“Estimates place the return on HEIF as £1 for every £6 invested.”

The report shows that critically, HEIF is one of only a few funds that can be used as a leverage to secure funding from other sources for knowledge exchange. However, this ability comes with added risk because if universities lose HEIF funding, the overall loss is magnified as leveraged funding also falls away.

HEIF remains an incredibly attractive investment for the taxpayer. Estimates place the return on HEIF as £1 for every £6 invested, although this probably underestimates the ultimate benefits to the economy and society thanks to the positive changes it makes to university’s approach to knowledge exchange in the long term, and the many knock-on benefits for employment and skills that may arise.

There are challenges ahead, not least thanks to the recession, which has made it harder for universities to make the case to private sector partners that knowledge exchange activities might be right for them. This is why they are diversifying around the world, bringing in further funding and showing why UK is such a vital export industry.

A knowledge exchange framework

The HEFCE report offers a framework for understanding the role of universities in knowledge exchange.

Although slightly clunky, this framework breaks down the contribution of universities in to the following key areas: the role they play in contributing the stock of knowledge through publications and in educating the future workforce, the direct contributions they make to support innovation; and the important roles they play in creating and strengthening the underlying innovation conditions of place: the factors that create a conducive environment for innovation and lead to a competitive place that can attract and retain resources and high value added, innovation-driven organisations.

“This work is rarely talked about in the press, but it is having an important and lasting impact on the economy and wider society.”

It also demonstrates the increasing recognition of the two-way knowledge flows, with users having an important role to play in helping to shape and influence the research and teaching agendas.  Universities knowledge exchange activities are tremendously diverse and cross disciplines, giving innovators many different points in the chain at which they can engage. HEFCE’s report shows this diversity to be one of the key strengths of knowledge exchange. It is also a central plank of University Alliance institutions’ strategies for knowledge exchange; it is not just something that happens in one department or faculty, it is activity at the core of the mission and spans everything they do, often crossing traditional disciplinary divides.

As we head into another Comprehensive Spending Review next year, universities will be considering how they can step up their interaction with the private sector to support growth and innovation. They will also be equipping their students to be tomorrow’s workforce and continue to drive the momentum of the UK’s economy. This work is rarely talked about in the press, but it is having an important and lasting impact on the economy and wider society making it a win/win for students, universities, business & industry, the Government and ultimately; the taxpayer.

Image by Indywrite, Flickr

Universities UK (UUK) launched their latest report ‘Supporting a UK Success Story: the impact of university research and sport development’ at a star studded Parliamentary reception this week as part of Universities Week. The report looks at some of the many ways in which university research is helping Team GB ahead of London 2012 and laying the foundations for future sporting success. Nicky Morgan MP, who hosted the event at the House of Commons, spoke of how the report successfully “raised awareness of the great part universities play in the sporting success of the UK.”

“Report shows how universities contribute to national life in a various sets of ways.” David Willetts MP

So what does the report look at and is the role that universities play really that significant? Four areas of research are explored; technology, health and wellbeing, design and sport development and participation. Researchers are developing new and complex technologies as well as applying traditional engineering techniques to sport. Bournemouth University provide just one example of the work that is taking place. The university is investigating the use and perception of prosthetics used in competitive sprinting events. Their work aims to develop and investigate how this type of technology performs and how its impact can be measured.

Competing can take its toll on the mental as well as physical wellbeing of an athlete. Research is increasingly being used to help athletes maintain their health and wellbeing so that they can perform to the best of their ability. Research by Northumbria University has found that by deceiving the brain, competitors can see up to a five per cent gain in sporting performance. Trained cyclists were asked to race against an avatar on a computer screen which they believed was moving at the rate of the cyclist’s personal best. However, the avatar was actually going at a speed one per cent faster than the cyclist’s fastest time. Research in this area is helping give UK athletes a competitive edge.

 “University sport breaks down social and ethnic barriers.” Ed Smith, Chair of BUCS

Good design is an essential part of any piece of sports equipment used by athletes.  Teesside University have contributed successfully to this area by developing an innovative new product to support cyclists who face the problem of cold hands for cyclists. Breezeblockers offer a range of aerodynamic bike shields designed to provide protection for hands and feet in cold, wet and windy weather. This example of excellent design is helping athletes to compete to their best ability in often difficult circumstances.

Finally in sport development and participation. UK universities are home to elite athletes and also focus on increasing participation, generating new opportunities and providing the student experience though sport. ‘UP for Sport’ is a coaching scheme run by the University of Portsmouth, which provides opportunities for university students to share their sporting expertise with the local community. This is by no means unique. Our universities are at the heart of communities and their engagement through sport is something which contributes to the lives of many.

“Research sounds specialist but if affects everyone.”  Rick Ryland Chief Executive, AHRC

Nicola Dandridge, CEO of UUK, is right when she says that the “Olympic and Paralympic games provide real impact to the work of our academics and the long term sustainability of research collaboration.” Universities are playing an integral role in London 2012 and the long-term development of sporting success. This report is a fantastic insight into the positive work that is taking place. The link between UK universities and sport is one in which we should be proud and can lead us to victory this summer.

You can find more about Universities Week at the official site.
#UniWeek

It is important to look at the evidence. Getting this right has big implications for the direction government policy should take as well as for individuals and the wider society. Seeking to increase the proportion of the UK workforce with degrees would be a waste of public (and, increasingly, private) funds if there really are ‘too many graduates’. Equally, moves to increase other forms of education and training or encouraging moves straight into the workforce at the expense of higher education could be detrimental to individuals, the economy and society if we do in fact need more graduates.

Our latest report, ‘The way we’ll work: labour market trends and preparing for the hourglass’, draws on the large body of evidence on labour market trends, looks at economic indicators measuring graduate saturation and discusses the implications for the UK. The evidence is that graduate vacancies continue to grow. Jobs in ‘graduate dense’ occupations are an increasing proportion of the total workforce. Graduate employment rates have been maintained despite the rapid expansion in the number of graduates and there is still a significant graduate premium. Contrary to popular belief, the evidence suggests that we need to increase the number of graduates in the UK workforce to meet the growing demands of the labour market.

Advances in technology are changing the way we work and the type of work we do. Employment growth is concentrated in occupations involving analytical, problem solving and complex communication activities: typically graduate attributes. We need to create genuine in-work and in-education progression opportunities to equip the population for the demands of the labour market. In light of this, the Coalition Government’s decision to cut around 25,000 university places for next year could seriously limit opportunities for individuals and hinder the nation’s capacity for economic growth.

Worryingly for the UK, global competitors are continuing to invest heavily in expanding higher education despite their own budget deficits. In contrast, England has had to reduce the number of places available at university to control expenditure. If the UK is to remain globally competitive we will need more graduates in our workforce. In light of the evidence, we must continue to seek ways to increase investment, public and private, in universities.  We need to think creatively about how to increase the total number of well-funded, high quality student places to meet the growing need for workers with graduate attributes and to equip the population for the way we’ll work.

This is why we are launching a new project, university_vision sponsored by Hewlett-Packard. Drawing together thought leaders from across the university sector, business and think tanks the project will explore, amongst other things, how the UK needs to be preparing itself now to deliver the workforce we’ll need in the future to remain globally competitive.

Collaboration, image by Phillip Wong - flickr

Announced less than eight months ago in the Higher Education White Paper, the Wilson Review has now been published.  The reaction to such a report is often revealing, offering insights into the nature and scale of the challenge that the review was set up to address that the document itself may not bring out.  So it was with Wilson.  The review was ambitious in its scope, ranging from student enterprise and employability to collaborative research to economic development.  There were substantive and reflective recommendations in every domain, informed by the principle that achieving the goal of ‘making the UK the best place in the world for university-industry collaboration’ required excellence across the board.

“The key is engagement, to individual and collective benefit.”

Engagement with a report as extensive as Wilson inevitably involves being selective.  Many newspapers focused on work experience, with the Guardian and Times Higher leading their article with internships. One recommendation concerned with ensuring companies have access to the widest possible pool of talent from which to select those graduates with the best fit to business needs provided a link for the Telegraph to concerns with the ‘downgrading’ of academic excellence raised during the controversy over Prof Ebdon’s appointment as Director of OFFA.

But there are consequences to selectivity.  Things can, of course, be missed and the review’s clear messages about universities and economic development – particularly with regard to LEPs, Enterprise Zones and inward investment – did not receive much attention.  There is a more substantial concern, however, in the case of Wilson.
Sir Tim has been a longstanding advocate of differentiation in the sector and his review invites universities to consider the recommendations through the lens of institutional mission.  So an informed selectivity in responding to this agenda, conditioned by the ethos of the organisation and communicated effectively to inform student choice, is entirely appropriate.  What the review has tried to tackle, however, is a politicised selectivity, where competitiveness or (perceived) conflicting interests prevents real engagement with the issues and inhibits collaboration.

The review argues that we need to move out of an environment where universities and businesses are critical of each other when speaking to government (while collaborating in practice) and where HEIs are unable or unwilling to refer to the strengths of others in the interests of the sector.  These habits have led to a disconnect between perception and reality and also an under-exploitation of universities locally, nationally and internationally.

“To achieve world-class status in university-business collaboration, action needs to be taken by universities and businesses themselves.” 

So the real work starts now.  There are no big levers of funding or regulation.  Government has been asked to look at introducing some incentives (or removing disincentives), for example, in the area of student work experience, but to achieve world-class status in university-business collaboration, action needs to be taken by universities and businesses themselves.  Action may only mean a review of processes to check for effectiveness; it may mean a reformulation of strategy, or even major innovation.  The key is engagement, to individual and collective benefit.
Trudy Norris-Grey, who acted as an editor to the review alongside Malcolm Skingle, made a powerful call at the Alliance event on 1 March for taking Wilson ‘on the road’.  She reminded us that there is, or should be, a new game in town.  Universities and businesses can do better than just competing to carve up the existing marketplace.   We can collaborate to make a bigger one, one in which our complementary strengths are recognised and put to use.  We will know we’ve succeeded if the next review concludes that universities are at the heart of business development and economic growth, on the local and the global stage.

Small businesses are the life blood of our economy. They drive regional and national growth and are helping to develop the UK workforce. Improving competitiveness, thinking of new, creative approaches and high-level skills have always been key to business success and growth. At a time when so much is changing, for students, institutions and on a larger scale, the way we work and do business, it is so important that we are ambitious to make the most of the positive outcomes that stem from successful collaboration between universities and business: stronger research, job-ready and entrepreneurial graduates, better businesses and communities, and economic growth.

With SMEs accounting for 99% of all UK businesses, they are critical to our economic wellbeing and have shown repeatedly to be engines of growth and the principle source of new employment.

Here are a few facts for you – just 15% of all growth comes from a change in inputs, that is to your workforce or materials. However, 85% of all growth stems from innovation. Innovation was the defining feature of the fastest growing 7% of businesses between 2002-08, helping generate half of all new jobs between this time. This shows us that as well as investing in a skilled and creative workforce, in order for businesses to thrive, innovation must be central to any businesses future.

So what can SMEs do to ensure they reach their potential? As the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable has said, “the UK has renowned universities and research institutes and a proud record of invention – from the creation of life-saving medicines to the development of the internet.” Universities are key to unlocking hidden potential. There are some great examples on the Open Doors website that demonstrate the benefits of businesses working in collaboration with universities.

Universities working with business makes sense. Not just for the economy but for the future of talent, research and innovation in the UK. This is why we are launching Open Doors, a month of activity in which people from across the university sector, business and anyone with an interest in this area can discuss this collaboration in greater depth and explore ways of improving its effectiveness. We are excited to be launching our new Open Doors website, which includes a new interactive map to help businesses find their nearest Alliance university business centre. We hope this will be a useful tool in encouraging more businesses to make the link with their local university and experience the benefits that come from successful collaboration.

Universities and SME are already playing a huge role in the economic recovery, however together they can both achieve even more.

www.unialliance.ac.uk/opendoors
Libby Hackett
Director – University Alliance

Photo by Polycart via Flickr

Last week I went to another Alliance university, Bournemouth, to give a lecture on what we can do, as a sector, to make the reality live up to the rhetoric of the White Paper in order to put students more profoundly at the heart of the system.

“If we are serious about putting students at the heart of the system we would need to look beyond this consumerist approach.”

The Coalition Government’s complete overhaul of the student finance system is, after all, not only based on our diminished public finances but on the widespread perception, held by successive Ministers, that the quality of the student experience had become a secondary consideration by many in the sector.  A wide range of organisations, the CBI as well as the National Student Forum (now defunct), the Select Committee as well as the Secretary of State, all expressed concern that priorities in higher education had shifted away from the provision of high quality learning and teaching.  The answer, Ministers – and Lord Browne – decided, was to put the finance in the hands of students to drive demand and improve quality.  A new ‘consumer’ based relationship would be born.

In Bournemouth, I argued that if we are serious about putting students at the heart of the system we would need to look beyond this consumerist approach. In Alliance universities we are working hard to ensure that students understand and take advantage of the widest possible range of the activities on offer, exploiting the potential for their academic work to connect with employers or with university staff and students overseas.  The relationship that students must have with the University, through its professionals, is that of co-creator – not the much contested term, consumer – if they are to shape their own experience and derive as much benefit from higher education as possible.

“It is not a simple consumerist relationship – students have to be involved in the development of their programme of activities.” 

Students look for all kinds of additional opportunities to enhance their academic achievements and it is the case that they increasingly value work experience, especially when that work experience is related to their area of study.  For students in subjects like History the absence of a professional body or an obvious set of professional destinations need not be a hindrance to engagement with employers.  Students in that discipline at Oxford Brookes, for instance, have had all kinds of project and work based opportunities with the extensive heritage organisations based in Oxford.  We have the evidence that graduates are much more likely to get their first choice of job if they take up some of the rich opportunities – for study or work abroad, research based project work, volunteering, placement learning, leadership in teams or societies, language learning – which are a part of the University premium that distinguishes us from new, for profit entrants to the market. It is not a simple consumerist relationship – students have to be involved in the development of their programme of activities in and out of the classroom or library.

But one of the most striking things about this approach is that it is not new, but built on decades, even centuries, of experience. Alliance universities have a rich heritage in this approach, many formed in the 19th Century to respond to the skills needed in the then changing and growing industrial economy.  Many of the features of higher education 20 years ago in institutions like Oxford Brookes – modular degrees, accreditation of work based learning, engagement of the professions in curriculum development, access to personalised learning – are common today in all our universities. So much of the work we were doing then remains central to the added value of a university education today.

“Time spent in higher education is not all about employment but about acquiring the capacity for reinvention.”

In 1991 our 5000 undergraduates were on individual programmes of study, tailored to their interests and needs.  Today students need to exercise many kinds of fine discriminations – as well as expending the blood, sweat and tears required by serious intellectual effort – about which of the wide range of opportunities available to them will add most to their experience and their future prospects.  Time spent in higher education is not all about employment but about acquiring the capacity for reinvention – of self, of society – in the broadest possible sense. It is about developing the capacity for rational argument, for well-founded research, for articulate and persuasive advocacy. But, equally as important is making the most of the opportunities on offer at university allowing students to develop to the full the potential for leading a substantial and well-rounded life (see examples on our student stories site) – an ambition to which we all aim to contribute and not one that can be reduced to a simple, consumer transaction.

It is popularly agreed that ‘there are too many graduates’ in the UK. It is important to look at the evidence behind this claim as getting this right has big implications for the direction government policy should take as well as for individuals and the wider society. Seeking to increase the proportion of the UK workforce with degrees would be a waste of public (and, increasingly, private) funds if there really are ‘too many graduates’. Equally, moves to increase other forms of education and training or encouraging moves straight into the workforce at the expense of higher education could be detrimental to individuals, the economy and society if we do in fact need more graduates than we currently have.

However, the UK economy is not presenting any of the labour market signals that would suggest there are too many graduates in the economy. Graduate vacancies continue to grow. Jobs in ‘graduate dense’ occupations are an increasing proportion of the total workforce. Graduate employment rates have been maintained despite the rapid expansion in the number of graduates. Added to all this there is still a significant graduate premium. Contrary to popular belief, the evidence suggests that there is a shortage of graduates in the UK not too many.

This is interesting and worth reflecting on. However, the question that decision makers need to be asking is ‘what next?’ What is the bigger picture? Investing in universities isn’t primarily about short term gain (although there is some of that). It is about investing in the longer term future of individuals, the economy and society. Forecasts show that most growth in the labour market over the next decade will be in jobs typically performed by graduates. Advances in technology are changing the way we work and the type of work we do. Routine tasks within occupations are being automated or outsourced. Highly innovative businesses account for a disproportionate amount of overall business growth. And it is typically graduates who have the attributes and qualities to adapt and perform best in this emerging innovation landscape.

If you see higher education as a luxury good it would make perfect sense to limit or reduce the number of student places – an exclusive experience for the lucky, wealthy or very deserving few. But higher education is not a luxury good. It is a public good. The future labour market will need increasing numbers of graduates. As workers are displaced from routine occupations we can either open up routes into higher education to facilitate upwards mobility or we can risk seeing increased competition at the low end of the labour market, contributing to increased unemployment and difficulty in finding entry level jobs.

Demand is high. Applying market logic would see the total number of student places increased. Instead they have been quietly cut by around 24,000 places compared with last year.  Budgets may be limited but we should be stating the case for increasing the budget for higher education in future years. Until then we need to think creatively about how to increase the total number of well-funded, high quality student places to meet current and future need for more graduates in the UK – answers on a postcard to 1 Victoria Street.

It is nothing new that the internet is changing everything. The way we do business, learn and interact with one another is increasingly dictated by digital developments. But what is remarkable about this new research is the scale and pace of this change within developing and emerging countries. The report says that nearly half of the world’s population will be online by 2016, with access to the internet becoming less of a luxury, limited to users in the developed world, and more of an everyday reality in emerging economies.

The challenges and opportunities this creates for the UK are huge. Traditional business models and ways of working need to quickly adapt and respond to both technological advances and the opening up of access to global customers. Paul Zwillenberg of BCG says that entrepreneurs building a digital business are outperforming rivals who do not embrace the web.

The UK must ensure it maintains its position as global leaders in innovative, high-tech business. Currently the UK’s internet economy is larger than in any other country and it is forecast to grow 10% per year for the next four years, and contribute 10% of UK’s GDP by 2015.

Our leaders, from Government, industry and academia, need to agree and set out a clear strategy for how we do this. Addressing leaders at Davos, Parick Pichete, Google’s chief financial officer, said:

“Understanding the economic potential of the web should be an urgent priority for leaders… [with] a powerful case for countries and companies to get online and reap the rewards of an age of data”.

Government needs to build on the momentum it has created this year in securing and sustaining the UK’s position as leaders in the global, digital economy. We had Universities’ minister, David Willetts’ speech on hi-tech growth. And then yesterday’s announcement from the Technology Strategy Board about the new Connected Digital Economy Catapult technology and innovation centre.

But at the same time, Government needs to explain how reducing university places, and ultimately the number of graduates coming out of our higher education system, fits within this economic vision. Our global competitors are increasing the number of graduates in the workforce to grow their capacity for economic growth. Emerging economies get this; India, for example, wants to more than double the size of its university system to become a “knowledge powerhouse”, increasing the country’s student population from 12 million to over 30 million. And it is not just in the fast-growing, tiger economies but right across Europe, the US and Australia Governments are undertaking ambitious strategies to ensure they will have sufficient high-level skills to grow their economies once again. In a recent speech on EU higher education policy Barroso said:

“We see in Europe the number of skilled jobs outnumbering the supply of students with higher education qualifications. While 35 per cent of all jobs in the EU will require high-level qualification by 2020, only 26 per cent of the workforce currently has a higher education qualification.”

Clearly Government plays a critical role here (especially while it holds the reigns on student numbers), but the higher education sector must stand up to this challenge too. Our aim at University Alliance is to open up dialogue between universities, Government and business to tackle these challenges. As a higher education sector we need to work with business to identify and deliver the capabilities required in a growing digital economy, and to highlight where Government intervention is required. Alliance universities have a rich heritage in this approach, many formed in the 19^th Century to respond to the skills needed in the then changing and growing industrial economy. We are working closely as partners in the Big Innovation Centre, who are exploring many of these issues. But beyond this we need to take leadership to look at the bigger questions facing our sector if we are going to be fit for purpose, able to deliver the knowledge framework needed to remain global leaders in the digital economy.

It is time for thought leaders across the political, business, academic and charity worlds to work together, to think long term about how we remain global leaders and ensure that we have the knowledge and capability in place so to reap the rewards of the digital age.

Green packaging by Kevin Dooley, Flickr

Despite turbulent economic times in 2012, there is a bigger global picture that will have a greater impact on the future of higher education: the rapid acceleration of new technology, innovation, design and new knowledge.

The rapid acceleration of new technology will have a bigger impact on HE than economic crisis

The same thing could have (and has) been said for many years now but it is the accelerated pace of change that will define the future of our universities – much more so than immediate economic conditions or successive government changes to university funding. Yes, 2012 will see the beginning of a new era of increased contributions from graduates (although none of this will be paid up-front by students in 2012 of course) and universities, as businesses, will feel the impact of a difficult economic climate. However, what drives a freight train through this short-term turbulence is a long-term trajectory of the increasing economic impact of our universities and graduates. Universities are no longer just about generating new knowledge within a protected academic environment. The ivory towers have fallen. All of our universities are working closely with new industries, design and technologies to make new discoveries that will change lives and tackle global challenges; playing a central role in both our economy and society.

My prediction for 2012 is that the new student finance arrangements will begin with much less disruption than expected and that the UK higher education sector will continue to adapt, challenge and drive change in a way that benefits our society and economy. I also think that our sector, robust and with a long history of evolution, not revolution, will continue to demonstrate excellence in the traditions that it preserves as well as the barriers it breaks down in driving progress.

Libby Hackett’s prediction for 2012 is included in the Guardian HE Network article, ‘What does 2012 hold for Higher Education policy?’.