"Too many universities," says new higher education minister

The new minster of state for higher education, David Lammy has warned that, in order to survive and prosper, universities will need to consider mergers and seek less conventional sources of funding.

His remarks come on the back of the revelation that 12 UK universities had a total of £77m invested in collapsed Icelandic banks.

In an address delivered at a Universities UK (UUK) event entitled 'The Future Size and Shape of the Higher Education Sector', Lammy questioned whether there were too many universities in the UK and outlined his ideas on what might be done to secure their relevance and financial survival.

The minister said: “In the commercial sector there would have to be many mergers over the next few decades – far more than we have seen in higher education.”

He went on to speak about “choices which may be uncomfortable ones for those who have grown used to thinking about a traditional model of university.”

Along with mergers and less conventional sources of funding, these choices included greater institutional specialization and the widening of the student demographic to include more adults in full time employment.

In August 2007 a new university was created in Scotland as a result of a merger between Paisley University and Bell College. The University of the West of Scotland is now the largest modern university in Scotland, with the merger being supported by the then-deputy First Minister and minister for enterprise and lifelong learning, Nicol Stephen.

One of the stated aims of the project was to make the university “more sustainable” by virtue of its increased size.

Not all mergers have gone so smoothly. Prior to the amalgamation of Darlington College of Arts and University College Falmouth in April of this year, campaigners warned that Darlington would be “annihilated” and its status as a small, specialised institution lost.

Current talk of mergers, or “federations” as Lammy variously referred to them, buck the trend started in 1992 by the Further and Higher Education Act.

Since the act, which allowed former polytechnics to apply for university status, the UK has seen some 60 new universities come into being.

According to UUK figures there are 109 universities in the UK, while the University and College Admissions Service has approximately 325 institutions in its system.

Even with the government’s current 2010 target of having 50 per cent of 18 to 30 year olds involved in higher education, this raises questions regarding competitiveness of entry. Indeed, last year all undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Napier University went to clearing.

Universities currently rely on students and their fees to remain financially viable, and it is this “traditional model” of funding that Lammy believes is unsustainable in the current environment of higher education.

Contradicting government policy, John Denham, secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills, said in August this year: "There are certainly young people who currently go to university who would have been better off on an advanced apprenticeship.

"We have been in danger of making it sound as if university is the only real aspiration."

Whilst the proliferation of universities raises questions regarding the value of a degree, Lammy’s concerns focus more on securing the financial survival of institutions.

However, he said he regarded ensuring a global reputation of excellence for UK universities to be an "important part of [the] job."

Lammy himself is a graduate of the University of London and Harvard Law School, and regularly receives requests for donations from the latter. Contributions from alumni are a source of funding the minister highlighted for future consideration by UK universities.