Major new report finds small, specialist and practice-based universities are vital to competition and innovation in higher education

The Higher Education Policy Institute with support from Norwich University of the Arts, has published the first holistic picture of small and special-focus universities in Size is Everything: What small, specialist and practice-based providers tell us about the higher education sector (HEPI Report 160) (PDF 772kb).

Small and special-focus universities now represent 40% of providers in England and 15% in Scotland and are the key providers of practice-based education in Britain. Specialism is essential to institutional responsiveness for vital sectors, such as medicine, agriculture and the creative industries. However, these institutions face resource scarcity, a hostile operating environment with diseconomies of scale and barriers to stability and growth.

The report findings include:

• Small and special-focus providers need help to overcome diseconomies of scale, capital investment and research requirements.
• Policymakers need a firmer grasp of size, specialism and practice-based education, as the sector broadens with new market entrants and access to degree-awarding powers.
• Specific aspects of higher education should be de-regulated to address barriers to entry and growth for small providers and overlooked disciplines.
• Mergers are a major risk to identity and specialism. Small provider clusters need structural support for lower risk alliances, including shared services, managed networks, consortia, strategic alliances and joint ventures.

Professor Simon Ofield-Kerr, Vice-Chancellor of Norwich University of the Arts, who supported and contributed the foreword to the publication, said:

‘This is an important report because it’s time to change the rules of the game. Special-focus institutions must be valued for the focused ecologies they create and the different approaches to learning and teaching they pursue, rather than for a predetermined collection of subjects.

‘In terms of creativity, a practice-based, experimental and industry-engaged approach is evidently one of the most effective ways to understand, interpret and produce the worlds in which we live.

‘This vital part of the sector needs to build common cause across institutions that may look very different but share core interests in new technologies, economies and global challenges.’

Edward Venning, author of the report and Partner at Six Ravens Consulting LLP, said:

‘Britain’s small and special-focus universities are the magic ingredient in UK higher education. This is the scale at which almost every great institution got its start. These universities are a mainstay of global expertise in key fields. But today, they face major barriers to growth and expertise, mocking claims to sector diversity and dynamism.’

The report was sponsored by Norwich University of the Arts and HW Fisher, which is a top 30 UK chartered accountancy firm.