Universities UK

⏰ Creative HE Strategy Call for Evidence Deadline: Wednesday 8 April ⏰ GuildHE is inviting insights from across the higher education sector to help form a new strategy and recommendations for creative higher education. Submit your evidence below to help shape the future of creative HE 👇

Universities across the UK are navigating some of the toughest financial challenges the sector has ever faced. 🎯 With the continued delivery of world-leading, high-quality courses a priority, the challenge is: how do we safeguard (and even enhance!) the student experience? 💡In this new opinion piece, Chair and Deputy Chair of the Quality Council Professor Nic Beech and Professor Clare Peddie provide an answer, exploring how the sector’s financial context could be an opportunity for transformation. Through 5 principles, Universities can focus on what matters most to students and designing more inclusive, efficient systems. Importantly, universities are already finding such opportunity. The piece explores how teams at Bangor University and Queen's University Belfast are building in efficiencies through inclusive design, preventing costly systemic issues and, ultimately, improving the student experience. 🔎Explore how to maintain and enhance quality in challenging times: https://lnkd.in/euHzBqgw

✨ Thank you to everyone who joined us for our communications-focused conference, both in person and online. It was a day rich in insight, practical discussion and shared experience from across higher education and the media. We’re especially grateful to our chair, Tania Rhodes-Taylor, Executive Director of Communications and External Relations, King's College London, for expertly guiding the day and drawing together key themes throughout. 🔹Sebastian Gordon (Universities UK) and Andrea Slowey (Northumbria University) explored how the UUK Reputation Strategy is being translated into practice, sharing early insights, key challenges, and the role of communications teams in delivering impact across institutions. 🔹Nicholas McDermott (Imperial College London), Shaun Wooller (Daily Mail), and Jane Hamilton (The Times and The Sun) provided a valuable media perspective on how higher education stories are received beyond the sector, with practical advice on reaching wider and more sceptical audiences. 🔹Brand, place and local impact, chaired by Andy Simmons MCIM (The University of Manchester), with contributions from Zeenat Fayaz (The Brand Education) and Catherine Frankpitt (Strike Communications Ltd), explored how locally driven campaigns can strengthen national reputation, support recruitment and build trust. 🔹Navigating risk, crisis and confidence, chaired by Hannah Berry (Universities UK), brought together Sabina Frediani (University of Liverpool), Phil Groves MCIPR (NHS England), Chris Thundow and Annie Goss (De Montfort University), to examine the challenges communications teams face and how to prepare for and respond to reputational risk. 🔹Creating impactful digital content on limited resources, chaired by Hannah Berry (Universities UK), featured Amelia Gilmore and Isha Rai (University of Westminster), alongside Dane Vincent (Loughborough University), who shared practical approaches to producing engaging content across platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. 🔹From ambition to action: delivering Future Universities at institutional level, chaired by Seb Gordon (Universities UK), provided a peer-led discussion on how institutions are responding to the Future Universities agenda, with a focus on practical delivery across growth, skills, civic engagement and public trust. 🔹Dave Penney (UCAS), Deon-Nadine Butler (London Metropolitan University), Harry Anderson (Universities UK International), and Zoe Paxton (University of Manchester) explored how the higher education narrative is evolving. 👏 Thank you to all our speakers and delegates for your thoughtful contributions! 📩 Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with our latest news, publications and events, and to be the first to hear about future conferences. https://lnkd.in/edpVPG5i

🎉 It’s been another outstanding year for UK universities 🎉 Not only do they continue to be world-leading across subjects in every discipline, but there’s also now more than ever in the top rankings! UUK’s CEO Vivienne Stern MBE responds to the good news in the QS World University Rankings 'World University Rankings by Subject 2026'. UK universities achieved: ⭐ 172 top‑10 subject rankings, up from 155 last year ⭐ 40% of UK entries improved their ranking from last year, putting the UK in the top five most improved higher education systems globally ⭐ A UK University is ranked as the best in the world across 15 subjects and is placed in the top 3 for 63 subjects. These results highlight the depth and consistency of excellence across the UK sector, reaffirming that our world leading universities remain one of the UK’s greatest national success stories. With the right backing, our universities are poised to continue delivering the skills, research and innovation that will shape the UK’s future success.

🎓🏛️Today the Russell Group of Universities have launched Healthier Communities 2030: a new commitment to build a healthier future for the UK. By 2030, the 24 universities pledge to: ➡️ Grow the UK's healthcare workforce by training more students from all backgrounds in vital roles. ➡️ Boost support for life sciences spinouts and secure external investment to the UK. ➡️ Strengthen partnerships with communities, the NHS, local government, charities and businesses to develop local health and care solutions. Hear from Lord Vallance, UK Science Minister below 👇 Read more: https://loom.ly/efkyh2o

🎓'The UK needs more, not less, highly skilled graduates' Professor Andy Long, FREng, Vice-Chancellor of Northumbria University, writes that the UK needs more graduates to drive economic growth and deliver on the Government's Industrial Strategy - and that social mobility must sit at the heart of that ambition. We too recognise that universities are essential for delivering a brighter future for the nation. This is why we have launched Future Universities, a commitment to ensuring universities play their part in the UK's future prosperity: strengthening regional economies, widening opportunity and developing the skilled graduates the country needs. Read how Northumbria University is already delivering local impact: https://loom.ly/Uk4xxec And read about Future Universities in the comments 🌟⤵️