Vanessa Wilson, CEO of University Alliance has commented in response to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, published today (Monday 23 June)
“We welcome the publication of the government’s much anticipated and needed industrial strategy, which rightly emphasises skills, innovation and the university sector’s critical role in the UK’s growth prospects. As anchor institutions across our nations and regions, the professional and technical universities we represent are well-placed to be actively positioned at the heart of the strategy.
“To fully capitalise on the strategy’s ambitions, there now needs to be a step-change in joined-up working across Whitehall departments, with the devolved nations and between the government, industry and our universities or the industrial strategy’s laudable ambitions will simply not be realised.
“To mitigate this, representatives from across the higher education sector should sit on the Industrial Strategy Council, and the Council should be granted genuine convening power across government departments to help speed-up decision-making.
“The strategy’s commitment to reducing regulatory burden for businesses is welcomed but is also urgently needed for universities too. Regulatory duplication is a key problem for the vocationally oriented and professionally accredited provision the government wants to see more of, and in the absence of more funding, cutting the cost and burden of higher education regulation would go a very long way.
“More detail is needed on several of the interventions on skills and higher education. We look forward to working with the Department for Education and Skills England on the upcoming Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper and urge them to clarify a publication timeline.”
About University Alliance
University Alliance (UA) represents 16 of the country’s leading professional and technical universities. Our members specialise in working with industry and employers. Their teaching is hands-on, and designed to prepare students for careers. Their knowledge and research drive industry to innovate, thrive and meet challenges.
Our members are leading the way in innovation and business support in the green, tech, creative and healthcare industries. They are leading providers of teaching in healthcare education, the creative arts and degree apprenticeships.
We collaborate as UA to benefit our members and their communities, and to provide expertise to policy makers.
University Alliance’s members are:
Anglia Ruskin University, Birmingham City University, University of Brighton, Coventry University, University of Derby, University of Greenwich, University of Hertfordshire, Kingston University, Leeds Beckett University, Middlesex University, Oxford Brookes University, Robert Gordon University, University of South Wales, Teesside University, University of West London, UWE Bristol.
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