Aim for 70% tertiary education takeup by 2040, say UK university chiefs

Ministers should aim for 70% of young people to continue their education after leaving school by 2040, while tuition fees in England should be increased, according to the leaders of UK's universities.

The "blueprint for change" published by Universities UK (UUK), which represents vice-chancellors, wants the 70% target to be supported by grants paid to disadvantaged students and a new "tertiary education opportunity fund" for areas with low rates of university and college enrolments.

The blueprint makes a string of other recommendations, including a plea for the government to restore financial stability for universities by ending attacks on international student numbers as well as boosting funding for teaching and research.

In return, universities would commit to a "transformative" efficiency drive, and to work more closely with businesses and local leaders to make stronger contributions to regional growth.

The government is said to be considering increasing undergraduate tuition fees in England in line with inflation and restoring maintenance grants, but any final decision will need the approval of the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

Prof Sally Mapstone, UUK's president and vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews, said: "Universities are essential to economic growth. For every £1 spent on them, the government makes £14.

"But we face a choice. We can take the path that leads to better and stronger universities, delivering on the new government's missions, and doing more to open up opportunities to a broader range of people, or we can let them slide into decline."

UUK's report comes 25 years after Tony Blair called for half of Britain's young people to attend higher education by the age of 30, a target that was met before 2020. But Prof Nick Pearce of the University of Bath, one of the blueprint's authors, said the new 70% participation target for young people in England should be wider and include all forms of tertiary education below degree level.

Pearce's chapter focuses on the need to improve the workforce's skill base by encouraging enrolments between level three qualifications, such as A-levels or BTecs, and bachelor degrees at level six.

"This is not a 'university' participation target; it is one that would expand participation in all forms of education at level four and above, for example on sub-degree courses, such as higher national diplomas," Pearce said.

"In the future, expansion should focus on tertiary education, with opportunities opened up across the country, maintenance grants should be restored, and better support made available to students with mental health and other needs."

Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said: "Universities UK is right to call for more investment from government, but this must come alongside a wholesale review of the current funding model.

"The tuition fee system has seen some universities hoover up students at the expense of their neighbours and allowed vice-chancellors to act like reckless chief executives. A publicly funded system, backed by a levy on big business, would end the feast-or-famine admissions free-for-all, distribute funding more evenly, and help create a much more sustainable sector."

The contributions include chapters by the Labour peer Peter Mandelson, on research and innovation, and by the Conservative peer David Willetts, who calls for "well managed" international student recruitment limited by local capacity, and for student visa holders to be removed from headline migration statistics.

Willetts said the global status of UK universities was being viewed "through an increasingly narrow lens of international student recruitment," leading to instability and restrictions that have caused steep falls in overseas enrolments this year.

At the same time, Willetts said, the "increasingly politicised" debate and soaring visa costs for hiring skilled staff had undermined the UK's ability to attract global talent.

UUK's proposals include an agreement between universities and government that recognises "public concern about immigration" in return for reconsidering the recent ban on many international students bringing dependents and by separating temporary and permanent migration in official statistics.

Willetts's chapter calls for "placing greater policy emphasis on the numbers granted indefinite leave to remain [in the UK], rather than blunt and volatile measures of annual net migration that have led to unhelpful, short-term interventions".

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "We will create a secure future for our world-leading universities as engines of growth and opportunity so they can deliver for students, local communities and the economy.