In a blog for Wonkhe, GuildHE’s new Chief Executive Dr Brooke Storer-Church considers what’s in the balance for her membership as we await the General Election and shares a list of cost-neutral steps she’d like to see a new government implement.
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My team and I met with members to discuss what we would want to see in a new government. Our only constraint for this thought exercise was that the ask should be cost neutral; it should be free for the government to implement. Here are some of those ideas which we will work with the next government on to shore up the sector and support our diverse higher education institutions.
Dr Brooke Storer-Church, Chief Executive Officer
- Adjust the SLC payment schedule to ease cash flow for institutions
- Convene a taskforce focused on the sector’s financial sustainability
- Remove the expectation in OFS’s registration condition B4 that institutions must retain assessed work for 5 years after a course ends
- Reinstate a ministerial data taskforce to inform holistic thinking across teaching, research, knowledge exchange and skills
- Avoid disorderly market exits by opening a window at HMT to provide institutions with repayable grants to ensure smooth transitions to closure or merger for those facing insolvency
- Dismantle the artificial divide between academic and vocational education and open the door to fruitful dialogue