Reflections from The Venn: University Leaders Forum

By Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Cairney & Company Strategic Adviser

Last week, the second The Venn: University Leaders Forum took place, and it was a pleasure to be there. What makes the Venn a unique experience is the range and level of expertise attending. Many HE conferences tend to be very specialised, or are very large and dispersed. Instead, the Venn is a very focused forum (it happens on a single-day), and it brings together a great range of expertise – from many Vice-Chancellors to PVCs and COOs, and Directors of professional functions from Research, Innovation to Advancement. As its name suggests it’s what happens at the intersection of professional areas of expertise which is interesting. What also makes it attractive is that the sessions are carefully curated, interactive, and invariably engaging.  

This year’s Venn focused on the political fracture facing the UK, and indeed the wider geopolitical challenges. In her keynote, Melissa Fleming, who has been United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications since 2019 reminded us of the challenges facing universities and young people at this time, and how universities as institutions can improve the way in which we communicate. 

In terms of the UK political environment, I was delighted to be on a panel in a session on how Higher Education might position itself in future elections. Jess Lister of Public First led the session, with contributions from our panel (which included Rachel Mills and Anand Menon of King College London). It was fascinating to realise how the audience would position itself on key issues from student fees to R&D, given voter preferences. It was also interesting that as an audience we learned from what the data told us about the popularity (or lack of it) of specific policies with sections of the electorate. It is clear to me that one of the major challenges universities face is the deep scepticism which exists around the role of the sector. In terms of fundraising and advancement, one of the key lessons which follows is that universities must demonstrate how their efforts in this area benefit the wider community and fundraising campaigns are not seen as self-interested. 

Fundraising and advancement was also well-represented in many of the lunchtime sessions, and in the ‘Hour of Awesome’. This series of lightning talks highlighted many inspiring projects in our universities, including community-based projects, examples of civic engagement, major fundraising efforts, and employability projects. It seems clear from all these projects that universities understand that they are rooted in communities and they must relate increasingly to their needs, as well as the student bodies they serve, if they are to thrive at this time of political fracture. 

Making the case for HE and society will require more of these types of projects, and at scale, in order to convince a sceptical public that universities are not simply organisations which are self-interested and oblivious to the many challenges which students and graduates currently face, from student debt to the cost-of-living crisis. This for me is the biggest takeaway in terms of the direction of HE in the next decade: we need to position ourselves clearly as major and essential contributors in society. But we need to do so quickly, and before the next UK general election. 

Advancement and the professions within it are of course crucial to this effort. Fundraising for philanthropic campaigns which are led by universities but benefit the whole civic community within which institutions sit, or areas of research which have both local and global impact will play a key role in reversing the current scepticism about the sector.