UK election 2024: key higher education policies at a glance

The publication of most of the major parties’ manifestos this week has, in many ways, left the higher education sector with more questions than answers.

That was perhaps to be expected in an election where it is what is not being said that might prove to be most important to the future of the UK’s under pressure institutions.

Although none of the manifestos included any ground-breaking new policies on higher education, each has shed some light on the parties’ thinking heading into the crucial poll.

Here THE summarises the big ideas and policy standpoints included in all the documents.

Labour

True to form in this election, the Labour manifesto was the vaguest on detail and offered very little the party had not said before. Highlights included:

• The party wants to “create a secure future for higher education and the opportunities it creates across the UK” and said it would “work with universities to deliver for students and our economy”
• It also confirmed its previously announced plan to “scrap short funding cycles for key R&D institutions in favour of 10-year budgets that allow meaningful partnerships with industry to keep the UK at the forefront of global innovation”
• Then there was a commitment to “work with universities to support spin-outs”.

There was nothing on tuition fees, but shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has previously said raising them was “unpalatable”, while not ruling it out.

While hardly revolutionary, a commitment to “continue to support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university” does mark a change in tone from the “rip-off degrees” narrative of the current government.

The manifesto had much more to say on the wider skills agenda, which Labour has tied to its overall mission to boost economic growth.

Plans to reform the apprenticeship levy and devolve skills funding to local leaders would pose both opportunities and challenges to universities.

Conservatives

Despite being in power for 14 years, the Conservatives have shown a willingness to try to come up with new ideas to boost its flagging campaign.

Most of these were briefed out before the manifesto’s publication, including the party’s central idea on higher education: closing courses seen as low quality to fund 100,000 apprenticeships.

This would cost £910 million a year, which the Tories believe can be found by saving the money that would have been loaned to students enrolling on the programmes with the worst outcomes. Of course, this only works if these students don’t just go elsewhere and take out a loan regardless.

Otherwise, a Conservative government would:

• “Work with universities to ensure students get the contact hours they are promised and their exams get marked”
• Deliver the lifelong learning entitlement – due to be introduced next year – which will offer students access to up to four years’ worth of loan funding to be used on a flexible basis
• Increase public spending on research and development to £22 billion a year, up from the current £20 billion.

Notably, the manifesto did not go further on curbing international student numbers, a fear for many in the sector after the Conservatives stopped master’s students from bringing their dependants with them, which has resulted in steep drops in enrolments.

Liberal Democrats

Hoping to regain its mantle as Britain’s third party in this election, the Liberal Democrats had more firm policy suggestions in its manifesto than their larger rivals. 

Central to the offer was the promise of a review of higher education finance in the next parliament to “consider any necessary reforms in the light of the latest evidence of the impact of the existing financing system on access, participation and quality”.

Much of the detail was left to the review to sort out but there were other policy commitments:

• Reinstating maintenance grants for disadvantaged students “immediately”
• Returning the UK to the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme
• Requiring all universities to “be transparent about selection criteria”
• Introducing a “statutory duty of care” for universities over their students
• Investing 3 per cent of gross domestic product in research and development by 2030, rising to 3.5 per cent by 2034
• Creating a lifelong skills grant of £5,000, possibly rising to £10,000, for adults to spend on education and training throughout their lives.

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Green Party

The left-wing environmentalist party has committed to scrapping undergraduate tuition fees and restoring maintenance grants. It said its longer-term plan would cancel graduate debt entirely.

Elected Greens “will work with the higher education sector to tackle the challenges posed by changes to employer contributions for the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS)”, the manifesto says, addressing an issue not mentioned by any of the other parties.

Investment in research and development would be increased by more than £30 billion in five years.

Reform UK

A party led by Nigel Farage was never likely to be a friend to the sector. Rather than a manifesto, it has published a “working draft” of its “contract with you”.

This included commitments to scrap interest on student loans in the first 100 days of a Reform administration along with a promise to “restrict undergraduate numbers well below current levels”.

The party also said it wanted to enforce minimum entry standards and “stop backdoor route to immigration through use of low-quality degree courses”.

In the longer term, the party would “cut funding to universities that undermine free speech” and enforce the provision of two-year courses.

Plaid Cymru

The Welsh party said it wanted to expand the numbers of domestic students studying at Welsh universities as well as retain the current number of UK and overseas students.

“Our ambition remains to make university education free again for all”, the manifesto said, “and we will work with universities to develop a plan to make them financially viable so that this can become a genuine option.”

Plaid’s version of the “lifetime learning allowance” would consist of a mixture of grants, loans and free provision.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com