London Higher is attending the three major party conferences this year, flying the flag for our members and for London’s higher education sector. We will be reporting back via the London Higher blog, starting with this piece on the Liberal Democrats conference, which took place from 14-17 September. This blog has been written by Dr Richard Boffey, Head of AccessHE, London Higher.
London Higher was met with beautiful weather on the south coast for our visit to the Liberal Democrats autumn conference – and the sunshine matched the mood in the Brighton Centre. Following an excellent set of election results, returning 72 MPs, the party is feeling justifiably buoyant. Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper, spoke in her conference address about leaving behind the ‘survival mode’ of the early 2020s and embracing the role of a third party in parliament and ‘constructive opposition’ to Labour with renewed confidence. This was very much a recurring theme of the conference itself, with several speeches criticising failures of Conservative government whilst at the same time promising to ‘hold Labour’s feet to the fire’.
There may have been little in the main or fringe programme content that focussed directly on higher education, but there were no shortage of sessions dealing with education more generally, as well as higher education-adjacent issues such as growth, inequality, and mental health and well-being. Three key themes emerged from these, which may hold clues as to how London HE can most effectively engage Liberal Democrats MPs and the wider party in this parliament.
Firstly, the Lib Dems are seeking to broaden their appeal beyond the traditional Tory heartlands where they fared so well on 4 July. As the party leadership stressed in their addresses to the membership, the task ahead for the Liberal Democrats will be to present a vision that appeals to the whole country, especially metropolitan areas, where it currently holds relatively few seats. In other words, Londoners are amongst the Liberal Democrats’ target voters. The party will be paying close attention to the views and priorities of Londoners, including London’s large and diverse student population, in the coming period. This augurs well for the capital’s higher education sector, which will take every ally it can get for the period of financial uncertainty that lies ahead.
Saying that, the message coming out of conference makes quite clear that higher education providers cannot simply assume allyship from Liberal Democrat MPs and Councillors. This is the second key takeaway for London Higher members and for universities up and down the country. When it came to discussion of public services, Lib Dems speaking both at fringe events and in the main programme referred to their classical liberal belief in the primacy of individual freedoms, and of community rights, over institutions. Even the NHS, for instance – the core theme of Ed Davey’s leader’s speech – is not something to preserve for preservation’s sake. Rather, it should be defended because it can transform individual lives and well-being.
There is a lesson here for the higher education sector in how to win the support of Liberal Democrats, in parliament and in local government, for universities – especially those that are cash-strapped. Calls for an injection of funds into the sector purely to avoid institutional failure may fall on deaf ears within the party. Instead, the sector must show why universities and higher education colleges are worth protecting to begin with. That is, the sector must show how they generate positive outcomes at an individual and community level, whether through translational research, the training of key workers (not least doctors and allied healthcare professionals), serving as anchors of local communities, or driving social mobility.
The same conditional allyship will likely apply to the issues that matter most to students. A fringe session at the conference exploring Liberal Democrat approaches to driving growth in London was particularly revealing on the topic of affordable housing, which is a priority for students in and outside of the capital alike. Speaking at the session, Luke Taylor – MP for Sutton and Cheam – backed the building of new homes on the condition that doing so does not place strain on, or adversely impact local residents’ access to, public services. Could this end up being a litmus test for Liberal Democrat support for new student housing specifically, or for that matter for any increase in the size of London’s student population?
Thirdly, and encouragingly, there is clear common ground between universities and the Liberal Democrats when it comes to tackling inequality and supporting the most vulnerable groups in society. Munira Wilson, the party’s Education spokesperson, was quick to point out in a Q&A session that the education commitments in the Lib Dem manifesto (including a pledge to reinstate maintenance grants for the poorest students) had been given a ringing endorsement by the Sutton Trust. The manifesto refers to education as ‘the best investment we can make in our children’s potential and our country’s future’ and a number of fringe events were concerned with how the benefits of that investment can be spread equitably across places and communities.
We hope the proud record of the London Higher membership in doing just this means that the Lib Dems will view us instinctively as partners in their ‘fair deal on education’ proposals. After all, if they are seeking inspiration in how to improve outcomes for the some of the communities name-checked at fringe events, such as asylum seekers and care leavers, they need only look to the innovative work underway at London HE providers.
In short, then, the conference has shown that we will need to make the case for the value of universities to Liberal Democrat parliamentarians and councillors, but if they can be convinced of this, they are likely to be staunch supporters of the sector. From a higher education perspective, that would make them a ‘constructive’ third party indeed.
