Ebrahim Adia argues that it is time to consider a university social mobility supplement
As a relatively new vice-chancellor, I consider myself fortunate to be in a job that has such an impact on creating opportunity, developing talent and supporting knowledge creation and exchange.
I took on the role at the University of Wolverhampton in October 2023 at a particularly challenging time for the higher education sector. Back in 2011, I recall a former vice-chancellor of mine talking about the ‘perfect storm’ for universities. With the benefit of hindsight, that was a gentle breeze compared with the present challenges universities face.
Like many of my vice-chancellor colleagues, I am concerned about the fact that tuition fees have hardly changed for over a decade, that cost pressures have increased significantly over the same period, and that recruiting international students to remain financially sustainable has been undermined by a less than helpful policy environment.
It is a paradox that while UK universities are the engines of innovation and inclusive growth and central to the delivery of multiple government priorities, political resolve has, for some time, been lacking to address current challenges around financial sustainability.
Fundamental review
An obvious solution is a fundamental root-and-branch review of higher education funding to create a more sustainable future. But it is unlikely this will occur within the next couple of years—no matter which political party is in power after the general election. In the interim, universities will need to continue to control costs, drive efficiencies and deliver more for less.
At Wolverhampton, we are also coming to the view that trends that have been in train for the past decade within the university—namely transitioning away from pedagogical models and student support systems that were appropriate for a less diverse student body—will need to be accelerated.
Some 71 per cent of our students are the first in their family to access university education and more than 80 per cent are commuting students. Many of these students have other commitments, such as employment or caring responsibilities, and consequently marginal student identities and limited time to engage with university. This means they tend to prioritise learning and teaching above the university’s wider offer.
It is therefore time to reimagine the purpose and operating model of a modern university and this is the challenge we have set ourselves. It will result in a very different and, I hope, differentiated approach that better serves the needs of our diverse student body.
However, it will take time. A fundamental review of the organisational framework of a modern university requires significant planning, investment and managed risk. It involves the challenge of running an existing operating model while designing a new one—akin to rebuilding a plane as it is in mid-flight. Meanwhile, universities like mine will continue to lose students—not because we lack solutions but because of a lack of capacity in our academic and professional services to support students in a timely way at key points of academic and personal vulnerability. This often leads to a waste of individual potential and a significant loss to the regional economy of—in our case—the West Midlands.
Having a moment
Policy ideas have their moment—and an idea whose moment has come in higher education is that of a social mobility premium. This would involve universities receiving a government supplement as part of recurrent Office for Students funding in proportion to the number of first-in-family students or students from low-income neighbourhoods that they recruit, as part of a more coherent conciliatory and sustainable higher education policy.
A social mobility premium could provide much-needed financial support for universities, like Wolverhampton, that are committed to creating opportunity and incurring the higher costs associated with helping students that require additional support to succeed. We are in the process of gathering independent evidence to itemise these additional costs by student demographic.
Fair rewards
While a social mobility premium would inevitably have a disproportionate benefit for universities in the MillionPlus Group, different kinds of universities already benefit from other research and teaching funding streams where the MillionPlus group fares less well.
And, importantly, the premium should be linked both to widening participation and to continuation, completion and progression. It would not be enough simply to attract students from certain backgrounds, it would also be crucial to see them through to a successful graduation. It would therefore be necessary to include a performance-related element to the premium that aligns with the OfS regulatory framework and its focus on outcomes as well as access.
Introducing this premium would enable universities like Wolverhampton to realise their roles as anchor institutions, help them to transform at pace and increase student completion rates, thereby changing the life opportunities of many thousands of students and their families.
It would boost the economic ambitions of the cities and regions around these universities. It would also help to create opportunity, transform lives, and deliver a more inclusive, productive and sustainable society—ambitions central in my role as vice-chancellor.
Ebrahim Adia is vice-chancellor and chief executive of the University of Wolverhampton. A version of this article also appeared in Wonkhe.