October 2018 highlights
Week of 29th of October
Senior individuals from business, academia and civil society complete the line-up of the Industrial Strategy Council. See the full list here.
Please note that Dame Kate Barker - Commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission and recently Chair of the Industrial Strategy Commission will be the guest speaker at the March 2019 YU Board meeting.
The UK’s productivity puzzle continues to challenge policy makers and businesses across the country, and yet it has a major impact on the quality of life we all enjoy. We believe that the way we plan and design our cities and communities can play a greater role in making the places we live and work more productive. Read more here.
Skills for Inclusive Growth by Centre for Progressive Policy
An effective skills system must be a critical part of helping to tackle inequality and deprivation, attract inward investment and drive productivity.
IFS briefing: Autumn Budget 2018 Briefing
Response by the Resolution Foundation: How to spend it: Autumn 2018 Budget
Inside the Red Box - insights from WonkHE
The Prime Minister and the chancellor may not quite agree if austerity is over or coming to an end, but Spreadsheet Phil defined it as ending with increased public spending from next year's spending review onwards. He also said a full Spring budget was possible. As predicted, HE wasn't a feature of the speech itself, but there were some interesting nuggets buried in the supporting documents.
Fees & loans
A 2019-20 £9,250 tuition fee freeze is confirmed, though this is expected to be uprated by RPIX inflation in future years. Another £3bn of student loan sales is planned for 2021-22 bringing the total predicted value of the sales at £15bn. As we previously reported, Budget 2018 also confirms VAT exemptions for all OfS-registered Approved (fee cap) providers for "supplies of education".
R&D
£1.6bn of investments were announced for R&D, although the Treasury confirmed later that only around £55m of this would be new money that had not previously been announced: £20m in 2019-20 for the UK Atomic Energy Authority and its work on fusion technology, and £35m for a national quantum computing centre. £1.1bn of the investment is for the third wave of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) supporting R&D in priority technology areas, with £120m to extend the existing the Strength in Places Fund until 2021-22, and £115 million of follow-on funding for the digital and medicines discovery catapults.
Apprenticeships
£695m will aim to help small firms take on apprenticeships, halving the amount they need to contribute from 10% to 5%. Some worry this will result in drop-off over the next five months as employers wait for the cut. £5m will go to the Institute for Apprenticeships to help deliver apprenticeship reforms, with the chancellor optimistically reiterating the target of 3m starts by 2020.
The verdict
The accompanying Office for Budget Responsibility October 2018 Economic and fiscal outlook includes the assumption of "flat EU student entrants" beyond 2019-20 and a 3.1% decline in English-domiciled entrants in the 2018-19 academic year.
On student loan accounting, it details the £14.4bn "fiscal illusion created by the current approach" by 2021-21 and a range of post-ONS-review scenarios. If this amount were added to the national debt it could breach the government's "fiscal mandate" as well as the chancellor's claim to have met his targets three years early.
Andrew McGettigan on his blog drew a parallel with the PFI schemes that Philip Hammond announced he was ending yesterday, lamenting that the same logic hadn't extended to the sale of student loans - something that "also makes long-run losses for presentational gains".
This is the Budget in full. You can find supporting and related documents here.
The Chancellor has presented his Budget to Parliament – here's a summary of what was announced.
Including different ways for accounting for student loans (pg. 182) Read full report here.
Week of 22nd of October
James Ransom is looking beyond the financial benefits of university engagement. Read more here.
You might recall the rainy day we met at Trinity where Jovan from UUK came to speak to the then KTD Group. It's great to see that the outcomes from flexible learning work UUK has been undertaking were published today. This includes a suite of outputs covering the perspectives of prospective learners, institutions and employers on issues related to flexible learning, and a joint statement with the CBI on recommendations to address these issues.
Further investment in the UK’s internationally-renowned Catapult innovation centres has been announced as part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.
The Business of Cities regularly produce strategy and thought leadership reports for publication in partnership with organisations around the world. So far in 2018 they have published the findings of major studies with JLL, the Urban Land Institute, the Property Council of Australia, among others. See below for the full list of publications.
The #OECD launches today its updated and extended #skills4jobs interactive database. 40 countries (and some sub-national) data on #skill shortages and surpluses on a wide range of dimensions, including #cognitive, social and physical skills.
We thought this was useful to share given what we understand to be the influence of the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth in shaping the content of emergent local industrial strategies.
Over 111,000 fewer students (aged 25 and over) in higher education than there were in 2012. 42% decline in the number of students (aged 30 and over) on non-degree HE courses since 2012. Read the article and the full report here.
Research England is gearing to open the first call of a £4-million fund to strengthen research relationships between English universities and their counterparts outside the UK. Read more here.
Week of 15th of October
YU ESIF observations 2014-2020 19.10.pdfObservations from the ESIF 2014-2020 list of beneficiaries
YU response to the HE Commission DA inquiry final 17.10.pdfFour of England’s directly elected metro mayors are lobbying the government to devolve spending authority over the proposed capital that will replace their current European funding after Brexit. Read more here.
Written evidence submitted by David Connell
Universities will be divided into four groups of similar missions and size in the Knowledge Exchange Framework, of which rules and metrics are ready for approval by science minister Sam Gyimah. Read more here.
The chairman of the Knowledge Exchange Framework steering group, Trevor McMillan, shares the latest news on the development of a Knowledge Exchange Concordat. Read more here.
Week of 8th of October
Presents a rounded and comprehensive basis for assessing changes in economic well-being through indicators that adjust or supplement more traditional measures such as gross domestic product (GDP). Read more here.
Partnership+Framework (1).pdfSheffield City Region: A Partnership Framework For An Inclusive & Sustainable Economy
Quadruple-Helix-E-Final.pdfRead the full report here
This report is one of a series in the future partnerships and high-level skills theme, specifically addressing the vital role played by higher education, education providers and employers to provide integrated pathways for skills development. Read the full report here.
Week of 1st of October
YU-Submission-to-Science-and-Technology-Committee-POB-1810.pdfBack in July. I attended the 'Back on the Agenda? Industrial Policy revisited Conference' in Cambridge - I wrote a blog on it and this week the audio and presentations of the conference have been made available too. Check it out!
The UK2070 Commission is an independent inquiry into city and regional inequalities in the UK. Chaired by Lord Kerslake, it has been set up to conduct a review of the policy and spatial issues related to the UK’s long-term city and regional development.
The Commission’s Call For Evidence is now open until Friday 16 November – learn more here or respond to our survey form here.
The work of the UK2070 Commission is being supported by Turner and Townsend, a professional services company headquartered in Leeds.
As the Chancellor sets out his ideas on how new technologies will shape the future of the UK's economy, we think about how innovation policies could better serve the needs of society. Read more here
Industrial Strategy Council will try to improve Britain’s chronically low productivity.
PBP_BaronKantorWhalley_web_0927 (1).pdfBruntwood and Legal & General Capital (Legal & General) have established a landmark 50:50 partnership to create the UK’s largest property platform dedicated to driving science and technology growth in regional cities.
Planning-for-a-Step-Change-North-West-Productivity-and-Innovation-Study-September-2018-002.pdfThe Office for Students launches a new funding competition today for universities and colleges looking for innovative ways to help students find graduate-level employment close to home.
Please note 24.a of competition details here.
Key findings: Compared with other levels of apprenticeships and higher education generally there were relatively few degree apprentices in 2016-17, but the number of starts are growing. In 2016-17 there were 2,580 degree apprentices registered in higher education, of which 1,750 started their apprenticeship that year.
Best practice policy principles for developing a local Industrial Strategy.