The Guardian University Forum 2014 – as it happened

We had a chance to interview Pericles ahead of the event – here’s what he had to say.

Lewis on liberal arts degrees and creating a “community of learning”.

Liberal arts encourages flexibility and a love of learning. It helps you to think actively, develop your cultural understanding and contemplate big topics.

Question we ask at Yale-NUS is this: What must a young person learn in order to live a responsible life in this country?

We must address questions of philosophy and literature and to have some sense of what data manipulation means.

Response from the other D Stevens (NUS): The idea that we aren’t lobbying enough is ludicrous. Things are really bad. Policies are detrimental to international students. And we need to play a bit more hard ball.

David Stevens: We have to acknowledge that a reduction in the number of students enrolling is not just down to government policy – it’s also down to things like exchange rates and visas.

It’s going to play out differently in different areas. We’ve got at the moment a perfect storm.

Could the current situation be improved upon? Yes certainly. Within the sector we do need to lobby the government but we also need to do so in a measured and controlled way.

Scott Blinder: Attitudes towards immigration is very negative in the UK. For students, there’s low levels of support for reducing immigration.

Daniel Stevens: International student numbers are down – 36% decline in tier 4 visa issues. The 
UK is becoming less attractive to international students.

The public don’t consider international students as migrants - they want to see the number stay the same or increase.

51% of non-EU students feel the UK is not welcoming. The immigration bill will put off international students, and there is always this battle between perception and reality.

Education in the UK is second to none, but things are only going to get worse from the immigration bill. It’s important that we stop the bill or remove international students from it.

Nigel Seaton: International students bring in billions of pounds. Money’s important, but what is also important is the impact on the campus environment as a whole. University is a place to be with people from different backgrounds and cultures. I worry about what it will be like in two or three year’s time. We have to sort ourselves out now.

Must stress the importance of language and atmosphere – language is used in the UK which is imported overseas. I find it concerning that landlords might have a go in policing it. That makes me feel uneasy.

How can universities make the most of these overseas opportunities?

Kevin Van-Cauter: We don’t even know the real costs of TNE (transnational education) and the returns we’re getting. TNE is increasingly seen as a high-quality offer for students. Often students are disconnected with a UK institution, that is an issue and something that needs to be addressed. There has been a shift in way UK teaches international students, not in the UK.

Carolyn Campbell: International students choose UK HE because of reputation. Diversity of international provision brings new opportunites, but also risks. The rise of the global student, plus increased competition, are all challenges that we face.

Anne Marie: We need to talk about the importance of our own UK home students as brand embassadors of UK education. We want to see more benefit from an international experience – how it benefits their life indivdually and also how it benefits the sector. I’ve seen institutions develop innovative practice. I have noticed that opportunities and emerging powers are harder to come by. Got a long way to go in giving our students reciprocal opportunities.

David Greenaway: We have two campuses, one is in UK ad one is in China with 6000 students. Let me say something about why people say: how much do you bring back? That misses the point. It’s not about short-term margins, it’s about long term value. It creates employment opportunities for our students – B2B opportunities – and builds another stream for University of Nottingham alumni, who are brand ambassadors. How do you ensure quality? Hire good quality people, take good quality students, and retain control of the brand. If you want to do this, you have to have long running ambitions

Question from the floor: Isn’t change now happening more quickly?

Watson’s response: Things were changing quickly in the past as well. Think about higher education before industrial revolution and after. There is a sense that things are changing quickly now but we can absorb those. There is a generational difference now as well. I want to urge the longer view.

Question: What your view is on “for profit”?

Watson: Really successful view of for profit is when working in partnership. Really successful examples are when they are working together. The mantra in ‘All the president’s me’ - deep throat says ‘follow the money’. In HE it’s more important to follow the reward.

Question: Isn’t the sector too diverse to generalise?

Watson: It has a collective and an individual value. We can have diversity, but also a degree of discipline.

Watson: There’s another perspective (presents picture of world map where the poles have been reversed).

The “dangerous South”

Investment in HE is seen much more as a consumer good. Many of these things will come to affect our thinking of higher education as we become more connected around the globe.

We have an odd attitude towards the private sector – it is seen as the “cavalry over the hill”. Yet there is a fear about regulating it to the same standard as regular provisions - but this is not the view in many contexts around the world.

The southern narrative is more about “societal pull” rather than “social push”.

International partnerships from the North and South is about international prestige - about saying, “who wants to be in my club?”

Single secret for university leaders on how to adapt to changing HE landscape: creative contemporary cross-subsidy – very unheroic! You will never see a VCs grave stone saying that “he was a great cross-subsidy”

Plenty of food for thought. Speaking of which, it’s time for lunch! In the meantime, take a look at some of our Twitter highlights:

Another question from the floor: Surely universities can’t just be judged on what they give to society?

Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder and chairman, Cobra Beer:
“Universities are about preparing people for life after university. I struggle with vice-chancellors who don’t get that.

“I realised starting a business that the most important skill is being creative. I wish I’d realised that and been encouraged. We need to encourage it.”

Peter Brewin: “Pretty much everyone at university hasn’t started a company, so you’re looking at something quite alien. The question of whether universities should be involved in this, is of course they should. You’re already paying for all these workshops and labs – so they could be used. Universities absolutely should be and have to be backing us.

Question: Do all students really need to be entrepreneurial?

Panel: Yes – the skills we’re trying to instill in graduates are entrepreneurial skills. Students get involved in entrepreneurial societies for different reasons. What does it mean to be entrepreneurial? It’s a whole load of skills. But we need to be clear about the difference between being entrepreneurial and entrepreneurship (starting a company).

What do you think? Do you agree that all students need to be entrepreneurial? Have your say in the comments below.

I provide a student perspective. We were launched by students to encourage the growth of student enterprise societies.

Students can explore student entrepreneurship as a career option. These societies are really maturing and gaining traction. We’ve grown that model from 12 to 80 universities.

It’s all about learning by doing – having a go at solving a problem. It’s important to think about how this generation engages with the university community – this generation is the Facebook generation.

But the point that I really want to stress is that student enterprise societies are additive. Universities need to be committed to entrepreneurship on campus. Universities are a great place to start a business!

There is a real sense of unfinished business in terms of government policy on teaching reform. We haven’t got what feels like a sustainable funding model.

Universities encourage students from different backgrounds, unlike what Liam Byrne said.

In terms of research funding – it was a pretty significant cut. It’s going to be very hard for a future government to carry on talking about economic strategy. This is getting very serious – we are not investing in research.

What we in the UK will be looking for from each political party is long-term investment – looking for a competitative commitment.

We simply don’t have enough routes up to higher level skills.

First thing we’ve got to do is protect science in UK universities – we’re going to have to ask ourselves how we are to maintain that. The challenge has got to be how we grow.

We’ve got to stop shutting Britain off – students are clear about the signals they’re reading from UK politicians.

We have got the balance wrong and we will change it. We have got the post study regime wrong too.

We have a student finance system that is slowly going bust. £70-80bn is at risk – I’m not sure we can afford it, and it’s not a sustainable or strong enough system.

“My starting point is the starting point that every Labour politian will begin with – cost of living. Most families today have to work an extra two hours a week to earn what they were in past.

For the mediam term, the only way we can escape this predicament, is to earn our way to a better way of living, which is what we do.

Need more jobs in this sector
Our teaching system is not keeping up with technology that’s shaping the world around us. While we’re reducing science spending, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, and Obama, US president, are investing more.

Our competitors are not simply inventing things, they’re also making things – that is the competition. It’s not just the power of our competitors, it’s computer power too.

So what is going to happen is the economy is increasingly going to seperate into a high skilled sector and a low paid low skilled sector.We need to make sure there are more high level jobs and more ladders to allow people to break through to those jobs

This is the challenge we face in higher education – you are drawing on a talent pool that is just too small.

We do a terrible job of making sure that apprenticeship people go on to higher skills – currently only 6000 going on to higher level five.

Quite simply Britain doesn’t have an earn one earn two route to higher level skills.

Sir John O’Reilly, director, general knowledge and innovation, BIS says:

Graduates are good for the economy. We’ve seen growth in student numbers and growth in proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We’ve also seen a substantial commitment to science capital.

Generally our sector is seen to be in good shape, but there is a need to diversify income streams.

More students than ever before have secured their first choice in university – and students from lower income backgrounds are not being put off applying. Postgraduate study has also moved up the agenda, and the government recognises concerns about postgrad provision.

Let’s be clear, expansion shouldn’t be undertaken lightly – student experience should be as good as could possibly be.

Maintaing quality is key – the UK system is well established and very much on the radar with the government – lets make sure we keep it there.

Findings reveal some interesting trends:

• 60% of parents in london compared to 37% of parents in the north east expect their children to apply to university
  
• For parents who earned over £50k, 80% expected their child to apply to university
  
• 29% of parents say the university experience is overrated
  
• Third of parents believe it benefits you more from going to work than university
  
• Nearly half of parents think apprenticeship is a good route
  

Gavin Ellison, director of public sector at YouGov presents the exclusive findings from the Guardian’s YouGov poll - more on this story can be found here in this Guardian report.

Sue Littlemore, education journalist and former BBC education correspondent, sets the scene talking about the changing landscape of higher education.

From impact of new immigration policies to expanding student places, and from the BIS grant letter to Hefce calling for the need to protect high-cost subjects, to industry-university collaboration – there’s certainly a lot of food for thought.

So how will universities cope in these changing times? David Watson, University of Oxford, will offer his thoughts later this afternoon.

Hello and welcome to our live blog coverage from the Guardian University Forum 2014. This year our theme is competing on a global stage.

At a time of unprecedented international expansion, we are bringing together top decision-makers from UK universities to discuss the strategic and practical challenges facing the sector.

From 9.30am – 4.30pm we’ll bring you the latest views from the event, including what you’re saying on Twitter (#gdnuniforum).

Highlights from the day include:

• Liam Byrne MP on what’s next for higher education policy (10:15am)
  
• Professor David watson, University of Oxford, on how universities are coping in a changing climate (1:05pm)
  
• Professor David Greenaway, vice-chancellor of the University of Nottingham, on international collaboration (1.40pm)
  
• Pericles Lewis, president of Yale-NUS on the challenges of setting up overseas campuses (3:35pm)
  

Share your thoughts in the comments below and tweet any questions you have to @gdnhighered using #gdnuniforum.