Alistair Jarvis

4 weeks ago | wonkhe.com | Alistair Jarvis |Mark Leach

Last week I was in the US, as part of the CASE Global Leaders Programme, visiting five leading universities – Harvard, Boston, Princeton, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown. I also visited the United Nations, the Washington Post, the British Embassy and US university associations. I met and spoke with over 100 senior staff – mostly under the Chatham House rule – about the severe current challenges facing US universities.

1 month ago | advance-he.ac.uk | Aaron Porter |Alistair Jarvis

In today’s higher education landscape, governing bodies (GBs) face the complex challenge of balancing the immediate financial pressures of running an institution with the long-term strategic vision necessary to be a sustainable organisation in the context of their vision and strategy. Turbulence and volatility appear to be a constant in the sector which place enormous demands on governing bodies.

Nov 27, 2024 | wonkhe.com | Alistair Jarvis |Mark Leach

The inflationary undergraduate fee and student maintenance increase announced earlier this month are welcome, albeit modest, changes to the financial picture for universities. These small, short-term funding interventions positively signal that government is listening to the financial concerns of universities and students – but these are not changes that will make a fundamental difference to tackling the significant underlying financial challenges across the higher education sector.

Jun 17, 2024 | wonkhe.com | Alistair Jarvis |Mark Leach

The Labour manifesto made it clear that we can expect significant policy, funding, and regulatory change for universities and the broader post-16 education sector. The manifesto outlined a sense of direction and priorities, but there was little detail on specific new higher education policy commitments. There is an opportunity, in an Autumn 2024 budget, for a new Labour government to take some initial steps to stabilise the funding of universities and colleges and tackle student hardship.

Jun 14, 2024 | ahua.ac.uk | Alistair Jarvis

Let’s start with an honest assessment of where we are politically. The latest opinion polling makes clear that universities are not a priority for the voting public. New opinion polling by Public First in early June 2024 highlighted that the top 4 policy issues for UK voters at this election are: (Q: What will most influence your vote?)1)      the economy2)      the NHS3)      immigration4)      taxation levels Other polls support these findings.