UK universities have got to address their ¡°sacred cows¡± such as expensive pension schemes as they seek ways to pursue the ¡°far-reaching change¡± needed to come through the current financial crisis, a parliamentary reception has heard.

The sector needs to target ¡°much more difference between universities than there is now¡±, leaders were told at an event in Westminster hosted by the Higher Education Policy Institute and Advance HE that looked at potential new operating models for institutions.

Higher education has always changed with the times but what was needed now was ¡°faster and more far-reaching change¡±, said Paul Woodgates, who formerly led PA Consulting¡¯s education team and now operates as an independent adviser.

The system worked well in the past, he said, but had now resulted in a ¡°situation where research loses money, home students lose money and there aren¡¯t enough international students to make up for it¡±.

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This was being exacerbated, Woodgates said, by the fact that some universities have lowered their entry requirements so the ¡°problem falls disproportionately in different places in the sector rather than evenly as it might have once done¡±.

He said there was a need to innovate at speed ¡°and end up with much more difference between universities than there is now¡±.

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¡°We have to deal with some the sacred cows the sector has got stuck with, pensions perhaps being the biggest one,¡± Woodgates said, adding that it was down to both individual universities and the sector collaboratively to address such issues.

¡°Universities are spending so much of their resources on funding pensions rather than paying staff today. Those sorts of things do have to be addressed.¡±

Jesse Norman, the Conservative MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, highlighted an alternative approach taken by the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering?(NMITE), which is based in his constituency and for which he serves as chair.

The new provider, Norman said, was not concerned with ¡°marginal¡± improvements in people but wanted ¡°to take a person who would never have thought of going to university in the first place and get them a master¡¯s degree, a phenomenal job and transform their lives¡±.

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One of only a handful of ¡°challenger¡± institutions launched since rules were relaxed for new entrants, NMITE could be replicated elsewhere, Norman said, especially in ¡°coldspot¡± areas similar to Herefordshire, where only 18 per cent of young people go to university.

He said it was not particularly interested in targeting foreign students but wanted to ¡°educate young people from this country whatever background they might have¡±.

It was also not?only interested in intellectual achievement, Norman, a former Treasury and Foreign Office minister who has also worked as an academic, said.

¡°I think critical thinking is great¡­but that¡¯s not what we are trying to do. We¡¯re trying to do critical thinking and active doing. We want to create people of monstrous capability across head, heart and hand.¡±

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Elisabeth Hill, the deputy president of the newly merged City St George¡¯s, University of London, said while similar collaborations had been flagged as a further potential way of transforming the sector, the benefits are only felt after a long period of time.

One of the lessons from the coming together, Hill said, was that many of the bodies responsible for overseeing such processes did not have systems in place for dealing with such proposals.?

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tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com