Read: Report highlights universities’ contribution to social mobility but warns action is needed to maintain their value

Universities make a vital contribution to improving social mobility but a more strategic approach is needed if their work, and the transformative effect they have on communities, is to be maintained, a new report launched in Parliament today confirms.

The Purpose University Coalition report, Raising standards, creating opportunities, also launches the Raising standards, creating opportunities campaign, looking at the crucial part that universities play in their local areas. In addition to their primary function of providing degree-level education for their students, it highlights their dual roles as key deliverers of significant economic and social impact. They improve standards in schools through their active engagement in local schools and colleges, bringing their expertise, resources and research-driven approach to local initiatives, tutoring, mentoring, and collaborative projects. They also drive economic growth in their communities, creating opportunities in their respective regions. Universities in England alone contribute around £95 billion to the economy and support more than 815,000 jobs.

The report makes a series of independent recommendations to address the challenges the higher education sector is currently facing, particularly the need for more sustainable funding models and more innovative policy frameworks for inclusivity:

New Access and Opportunities Plans (AOP) to replace Access and Participation Plans (APP), which would encompass a student’s full tenure at university, offer a more contextual overview and enable social value-added per student to be measured;

Foster place-centred entrepreneurship to explore how universities can explore their roles as opportunity creators and connects more strategically, encouraging and incentivising their links with local businesses;

Harness universities further down the talent pipeline to enable them to plug labour market gaps, including widening the scope of the Apprenticeship Levy to allow universities to offer upskilling and reskilling courses;

A new approach to international development to explore more strategic avenues to harness the power of international students and help drive development in their home countries as well as provide talent for the UK economy.

The report features a range of best-in-class examples from partners of the Purpose University Coalition across the country which illustrate the strength and depth of their activities and how they are making a difference in their local areas.

Chair of the Purpose Coalition and former Education Secretary, Rt Hon Justine Greening MP, said: “The university system in the UK is one which is the envy of the world but its contribution to social mobility is often undervalued. As anchor institutions, spreading opportunity and levelling the playing field has been at the heart of everything they do for years but their wider role in raising standards in schools and driving economic growth, and the impact of that on their communities, can sometimes be overlooked. Our Raising standards, creating opportunities campaign is all about highlighting that dual role to political stakeholders and others to promote the fantastic work that universities do and the effectiveness of their strategic approach.

“The report we’ve published today to launch the campaign, and the case studies it features, is proof of the amazing work that our Purpose University Coalition partners are carrying out in their communities, and of their importance to the UK. I hope that their strategic approaches will be replicated across higher education. It also includes four important recommendations for action that will help overcome current socio-economic challenges and safeguard the invaluable contributions the sector makes to society as a whole.”

The report can be found here.

Notes to Editors

1. The Purpose Universities Coalition is made up of the UK’s most innovative purpose-led leaders and UK universities. The universities in the Coalition are playing a unique role in levelling up as anchor institutions in communities across the UK, setting new standards on levelling up and driving wider social mobility. The Purpose Universities Coalition forms part of the wider Purpose Coalition.

2. Members of the Purpose University Coalition Case featured in the report:

Cardiff Met University

Loughborough University

Newcastle University

Northumbria University

Solent University

Staffordshire University

University of Bolton

University of Chester

University of Derby

University of Greenwich

University of Northampton

University of Southampton

University of Stirling

University of the West of England

University of West of London

University of Worcester

York St John University