Our priorities for the new government

Although uncertainty remains around the formation of the new government, there are a number of higher education policy priorities it should address. Universities and business schools have great potential to support the government in the areas of productivity, innovation, social mobility, and local economic growth. To enable business schools to contribute to these areas the government must consider the impact of its policymaking on broader issues such as Brexit and immigration, has on universities.

Our members’ key areas of concern which should be priorities for the new government and the universities Minister are:

Brexit – negotiate a settlement which enables UK business schools to compete for, and attract, students, staff and research funding.

Immigration – create a visa regime which promotes not deters international applicants; which is robust and efficient but not costly for universities to administer; and which facilitates those graduates that want to contribute to our economy through legitimate employment and starting businesses to do so.

Productivity, industrial strategy and growth – address the UK’s productivity lag caused by under investment in management training by businesses. Deliver on the previous government’s proposals to improve support for entrepreneurs and scale-ups through better promoting and integrating the valuable role of business schools.

Research and innovation – ensure universities are appropriately funded to undertake research and development in key growth sectors, and incentivised to foster collaboration between STEM and management research in order to better commercialise innovation.

Teaching – create a robust and fair system to promote and assess world class teaching.

We look forward to working with our members and speaking to ministers to deliver these aims.