- A new report by London Higher’s AccessHE team reveals higher education in London is a major contributor to diversifying the talent pipeline to jobs in emerging industries, with more than 30 universities in the capital delivering over 190 widening participation interventions.
- This widening participation activity is concentrated in inner and West London. Outer London boroughs remain ‘cold spots’, meaning opportunities for young people in areas like Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Bexley are much more limited.
- There is no established framework for demonstrating where and how widening participation work serves London’s growth sectors, hindering coordination and obscuring the full extent of higher education’s contribution. The report creates a framework that could be used across the skills system in future.
- The report recommends that all parts of London’s skills ecosystem must collaborate to pool provision, develop careers guidance and extend pathways to the jobs of the future, ensuring access for Londoners across the capital.
‘A New Frontier: higher education and diversifying the talent pipeline for London’s emerging industries’, launched on 11 February 2026 at Queen Mary University of London, presents the first systematic analysis of how London’s universities support inclusive access to careers in innovation-focused industries such as life sciences, artificial intelligence and green technology. These are sectors earmarked for growth in both the Mayor’s London Growth Plan and the Government’s Industrial Strategy.
The report shows that a diverse range of over 30 higher education providers already deliver impactful widening participation initiatives aligned to frontier innovation sectors. However, the provision is unevenly distributed, concentrated in central and West London. Those living and studying in outer boroughs face limited exposure to frontier innovation careers.
The report recommends:
- London stakeholders adopt a strategic approach to identifying gaps in inclusive talent activity for the frontier innovation sector and monitoring the impact of interventions. This could be done using the pathways and talent map that this report creates, as a common framework for guiding collaboration
- Policymakers stimulate regional coordination via a dedicated Inclusive Talent Challenge Fund. This would meet the government’s own stated aims of aligning its funding for the HE sector more closely with growth and opportunity.
- All partners in London’s skills ecosystem adopt the frontier innovation pathways and talent framework put forward in this report as a tool for strategic collaboration and tracking impact.
- London’s higher education sector pools provision of careers advice and guidance and other widening participation programmes, to extend support to outer London, drive efficiency, and build on the good work already being done.
Commenting on the report, Dr Richard Boffey, lead report author and Head of AccessHE at London Higher, said:
The social licence of universities rests on their ability to show how they are driving both growth and opportunity. By looking in depth at a priority sector of London’s economy, we offer the first systematic attempt to evidence this, showing how, and where, the HE sector helps high growth-potential businesses to meet their inclusive talent and skills needs. We should be encouraged by the breadth and scale of contribution identified in this report. The task now is to turn that contribution into something even more strategically coordinated, to make sure it serves all of London’s communities.
Professor Stephanie Marshall, Vice Principal for Education at Queen Mary University of London said:
As a Russell Group university which is proud to attract and support students from backgrounds typically under-represented in universities like ours, we are delighted to host this important conference and welcome this new report.
It is vital universities work together, and across sectors, to break down barriers in higher education so we can support those with the potential to succeed, irrespective of their background, and in doing so ensure existing and future skills needs are met. At Queen Mary, we have a long history of working collaboratively with employers to understand their needs and ensure our graduates succeed, and we look forward to working with partners to drive further changes across London and beyond.
