[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”on” _builder_version=”3.17.6″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ specialty_columns=”4″][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.17.6″ featured_placement=”above” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n
Professor Andy Westwood talks about the most important domestic challenge for the new Conservative Government \u2013 regional inequality.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cGetting Brexit done\u201d might have been the dominant theme in December\u2019s General Election but \u2018levelling up\u2019 the economy across all parts of the UK has quickly become the most important domestic challenge for the new Conservative Government. Of course this is rather easier said than done.<\/p>\n Regional inequality<\/strong> This won\u2019t be the first Government to have tried to fix the problem. Like others before them the Conservatives are promising investment in infrastructure, Research and Development (R&D) and public services to tackle the gaps. This will underpin the coming reshuffle (expected in early February), the Budget in March and a Spending Review in the Autumn. In theory at least, they will incentivise innovation, increase regional productivity and improve prosperity. Better living standards and higher wages should follow. But this time the political will might be strengthened with Boris Johnson owing much of his 80 seat majority to constituencies won in \u2018left behind\u2019 towns and in underperforming regions. These include seats in Greater Manchester local authorities such as Wigan, Bolton, Bury and Rochdale. Jake Berry, Minister for the Northern Powerhouse, already represented the Rossendale and Darwen constituency which borders five of these new Conservative constituencies in Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n R&D Investment<\/strong> Other than the promise to double R&D spending towards the 2.4% (the extra \u00a39bn could take the UK to around 2.1%) the Government is also looking to accelerate the market principles offered by HE reform since 2010. More powers to the Office for Students (OFS), more focus on value for money and possibly fewer or capped graduate places overall especially from \u2018lower value\u2019 courses. But that is almost a completely \u2018place blind\u2019 approach and creates big political tensions with Johnson\u2019s desire to \u2018level up\u2019 in underperforming places. Withdrawing numbers and weakening institutions is more likely to undermine these new local priorities. The right hand needs to understand what the left hand is doing.<\/p>\n But overall the prospects for research intensive universities in the north like Manchester should be good. Shoring up the existing system might see lower thresholds for research council bids, full economic costing and more support for PhDs. But the productivity focus will also bring big opportunities for more applied research too, such as in materials and the life sciences. However, central to both will be an acceptance that increased R&D funding must demonstrate benefits in less well performing places nearby. Voters in Oldham and Tameside should see some of these impacts in their own living standards as well as in the public services that they use. <\/p>\n Civic engagement<\/strong> This is why civic engagement in our new strategic plan is so important. It is much more than just a demonstration of our social responsibility. Deploying our intellectual resources to understand local economies and ultimately to help improve productivity and living standards within them will be crucial to us and to other similar universities if we want to win more of the new R&D funds on offer. This is where applied research in the social sciences will be every bit as important as in health or engineering.<\/p>\n None of this comes at the expense of our wider values and interests \u2013 our commitments to teaching and learning, excellence in research or for our international ambitions. But as our honorary professor and deputy chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Jim O\u2019Neill, might say today the \u2019BRICs\u2019 aren\u2019t just Brazil, Russia, India and China, they are also Blackpool, Rochdale, Ilkley and Calderdale.<\/p>\n \u2018Levelling up\u2019 might be a soundbite but the inequalities that drive it are real and problematic for all Governments as well as for the HE sector. When civic universities were first founded in the 19th century they were done so with very similar social and economic intentions. Manchester lays claim to being one of the first with its beginnings in both the Mechanics Institute and the original vision of John Owens. So this is central to who and what we are as an institution as well as a major theme for this government in the coming months and years.<\/p>\n Andy Westwood, Vice Dean Social Responsibility, Faculty of Humanities<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=”3.17.6″ prev_text=”Previous” next_text=”Next” in_same_term=”off” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.17.6″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related posts” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ locked=”on”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Getting Brexit done might have been the dominant theme in December\u2019s General Election but \u2018levelling up\u2019 the economy across all parts of the UK has quickly become the most important domestic challenge for the new Conservative Government. Of course this is rather easier said than done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" [et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]<\/p> When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p> Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p> Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p> However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p> Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p> Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term. Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p> Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p> When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p> To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]<\/p> [related-posts-thumbnails]<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"1_3\"][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=\"Subscribe\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"et_pb_widget_area_3\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"sidebar-1\" show_border=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-of-humanities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3153,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions\/3153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRegional inequality in the UK is a long-standing, deeply entrenched \u2013 and growing \u2013 policy problem. The gaps between the best and worst performing regions are amongst the largest in both Europe and the OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). And we know that this extends to intra-regional inequalities such as here in Greater Manchester where there are similar gaps between the best and least well performing areas too. These differences in productivity, and therefore in wages and living standards, have been an important driver of political dissatisfaction influencing voting patterns in both the 2016 Referendum and the 2019 Election.<\/p>\n
\nBoris has promised to double Government R&D funding (with a boost to some \u00a318bn overall) as a way of \u2018levelling up\u2019 economic performance across the country. His chief adviser Dominic Cummings (for whom this is non-negotiable) has pointed to Richard Jones<\/a>\u2019 \u2018Resurgence of the Regions\u2019 paper<\/a> as a blueprint for such an approach. Both wish \u2018to repay the trust\u2019 of those voting Conservative to \u2018get Brexit done\u2019 and keep hold of the seats they won in Labour\u2019s old heartlands in the North and the Midlands. But this will involve a significant shift in traditional, as well as more recent, Conservative thinking on both higher education (HE) and the economy.<\/p>\n
\nThe Recent Civic Universities Commission \u2013 chaired by Lord Kerslake and also endorsed in the Conservative manifesto \u2013 offers many suggestions for universities to better articulate impact in this new political geography. The Augar review too stresses why the policy solutions to regional inequality and left behind towns will rely just as much on FE colleges and on collaborations between HE and FE in places like Bolton, Wigan and Warrington.<\/p>\nRelated<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
Melissa Westwood: Impactful research and \u2013 importantly \u2013 how we get there<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Hannah Rundle: Do Humanities matter?<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Andy Westwood: Imagining a higher education system beyond Covid-19<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Related<\/h1>