Vice-Chancellor Julie Hall explains why the government needs a bolder approach towards higher education
Date: 2 October 2026
At the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, education and training were framed as critical drivers of opportunity, growth, innovation and research.
Universities can deliver on every one of those and yet we have heard nothing. Skills England, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement and a restructured Higher Education Innovation Fund built around regional business partnerships are welcomed, and I don't doubt the intent behind any of them.
But I do doubt whether anyone in government has wondered what it all adds up to. Experts have warned that universities' civic role as anchor institutions is being held back by an unstable short-term funding environment. I absolutely recognise this.
At London Met, we’ve spent years building strong networks across the capital – joint work with local councils, collaborating with NHS trusts, engaging with employers and actively contributing to the London Anchor Institutions’ Network. Ask any university trying to build similar civic partnerships elsewhere whether they expect that funding to still be there next year.
This is the pattern across the sector. Good initiatives are being undermined by a tug of war between departments and ministerial changes made with little apparent thought for what they disrupt.
The Government treats students as a cost problem when the challenge is opening up more opportunities and building a skilled workforce to drive growth and innovation. The same misdiagnosis applies to research, where ministers incorrectly focus on price tags, and in international recruitment where the debate over student numbers and immigration figures hurts one of the few sectors where Britain still leads the world.
But the bigger issue is that the funding model belongs to a different decade. What should replace it is a bold vision that government, councils, employers and civic organisations build together. It can provide 'hope in every heart' and must reach those who feel the odds are already stacked against them and those who've watched opportunity narrow rather than widen.
London Metropolitan University already delivers on its growth and public service reform agendas. We open doors wide and transform lives. Whether it's co-designing hyper-local research with councils to shape policy, running free or low-cost community services through our London Met Labs clinics, or working directly with regional employers to plug critical skills gaps, this is what a civic university delivers when it can plan for the long term.
However, cutting strategic grant funding for key subjects removes one of the practical tools that let us do this type of work. If ministers want universities to be engines of opportunity and growth, they need a bold vision for how higher education is funded, how it's regulated and what it's for.
