
Dr Diana Beech, CEO, London Higher said:
“The latest Government line-up represents a mixed bag for the capital’s higher education institutions. While the new postholders of the four Great Offices of state reflect a welcome move back to a more Centrist position for the Sunak Government and should hopefully bring an end to the regressive targeting of international student migration, the addition of former Education Secretary Damian Hinds to the Department for Education adds to a lineup of ministers with a track record of prioritising technical and vocational education reform over and above solving the unsustainability of university funding.
The departure of Paul Scully MP as Minister for London also leaves the capital’s higher education sector without a key Government ally. However, with the Rt. Hon. Greg Hands MP taking the London portfolio over to the Department of Business and Trade, London’s higher education institutions now have a strategic opportunity to showcase their contribution to opportunity, investment and growth. This is an approach that will also work well with new Science Minister Andrew Griffith MP, who is already seeing UK research and innovation as a hook for investment and unleashing capital – something at which London’s universities already excel.”