Universities must prepare for populism, warns HEPI report co-authored by Professor Diana Beech

Public patience with universities is thin as populist sentiment rises, finds a new study co-authored by Professor Diana Beech (City St George's, University of London) and Edward Venning (Six Ravens Consulting).

The report Preparing for Populism (HEPI Debate Paper 44) argues the higher education sector’s biggest problem is not money but trust.

The authors encourage universities to engage across the political spectrum in an unashamed way. That includes with political parties sceptical of higher education, most notably Reform UK. They argue this is different to endorsement: it is, rather, democratic realism and pluralism at work.

Universities have fallen into a complex, dull and defensive public debate, focused on economic contributions and graduate earnings. The risk is that this looks selfish, tone-deaf and insular at a moment of peril.

The report offers a three-part framework for reconnecting universities with political sentiment:

1. Instrumental legitimacy: doing the core roles of teaching and research well and explaining them clearly
2. Relational legitimacy: connecting to the need for national renewal, grounded in an appeal to common sense
3. Moral legitimacy: playing by the rules while helping shape better ones.

Professor Beech is the Director of the Finsbury Institute at City St George’s, the new public policy hub at City St George’s. She said:

This report is a call to act early and act together. Most politicians agree universities, like other public institutions, are not keeping their side of the social contract. Populism is a symptom not a cause of this.

Above all, universities need a new political posture. Universities cannot engage only with traditional parties. They need to be credible with the full range of democratic opinion, including so-called populists. That is how autonomy is earned and protected.

Edward Venning, Partner at Six Ravens Consulting, added:

Public support is a moving target. Society changes its norms from time to time. Then a legitimacy gap opens up and social confidence frays.

Universities are using arguments that do not fit the popular mood in a low-growth economy. Legitimacy is built through behaviour, relationships and governance that the public can respect and understand.

If universities change tack, they can lead a broader renewal of trust in public institutions. This will get them the funding they deserve. If not, the sector’s structural problems could easily become much worse.

The new Debate Paper argues legitimacy is not a given. Institutions earn it through what they do, how they act and how they connect with others. In social science, this is called ‘legitimacy management’, but the idea is simple. Universities must work for public support in a structured way to uphold their side of the social contract with the British people.

The report recommends a reset that is collective, not piecemeal. It proposes:

• A core offer with universal reach by reframing advanced learning as a necessity to participate fully in advanced society.
• A new intellectual project to provide the knowledge base and capabilities the UK needs to be independent and strong.
• A coalition for legitimacy, so universities and sector bodies act together. This includes political advisory panels for regulators to strengthen credibility across party lines.
• More alignment between university and national attitudes. This includes a legitimacy observatory to track public trust and gaps between university culture and wider public attitudes.
• New benchmarks for quality and public value, developed with the public in mind.

Professor Beech is also Assistant Vice-President of Policy and Government Affairs at City St George's. Her last report for HEPI was, Universities are boxed in: Is there a way out? (HEPI Debate Paper 40), authored with Professor André Spicer. She is also an Independent Governor and Vice-Chair of the Board at the University of Worcester.

Edward Venning is Managing Partner at Six Ravens Consulting LLP, from where he helps universities with strategy, delivery and communication. Previous work for HEPI includes Size is Everything: What small, specialist and practice-based providers tell us about the higher education sector (HEPI Report 160) and Down with the World-Class University: How our business models damage universal higher education (HEPI Debate Paper 38).

HEPI was founded in 2002 to influence the higher education debate with evidence. The organisation is UK-wide, independent and non-partisan.