Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head says

{"text":[[{"start":7.641,"text":"The Labour government has harmed UK universities by neglect as much as or more than Donald Trump has intentionally damaged their US peers, the American head of the London School of Economics has claimed."}],[{"start":18.8,"text":"Larry Kramer, who became president and vice-chancellor of LSE two years ago, pointed to policies including the freeze in domestic student fees, restrictions on international students and increases in employers’ national insurance."}],[{"start":32.24,"text":"“It’s not an intentional attack but it’s the unintended consequences. No one is looking at the cumulative effect, which has been as bad or worse than anything that’s happened in the US,” he told the FT."}],[{"start":43.918,"text":"Kramer, the former dean of the law school at Stanford, also attacked regulatory and reporting requirements, including around freedom of speech, teaching and academic impact."}],[{"start":54.128,"text":"“They are imposing regulatory requirements that add additional costs and not necessarily helping achieve the end they want,” he said."}],[{"start":61.852,"text":"His comments echo the frustrations of other UK university leaders on policy measures that have hit the sector, with cuts to fee-paying international students leading to job cuts."}],[{"start":71.793,"text":"UK universities had hoped to benefit from Trump’s crackdown on American universities, but their more limited resources mean that there has only been a small influx of US-based academics and students."}],[{"start":84.29,"text":"Simon Marginson, professor of higher education at Bristol university, said: “The tuition funding freeze is existential and hence comparable to Trump’s impact. The rest in the UK is just the ups and downs of policy, easily reversible.”"}],[{"start":95.84,"text":"But he added: “In another two to three years UK funding will be really dire.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":101.6,"text":"As well as recent visa restrictions, the government will introduce a £925 levy on each international student from 2028."}],[{"start":110.204,"text":"Kramer welcomed the renewed focus by Andy Burnham, the new prime minister, on vocational training but warned that it should not be at the expense of universities."}],[{"start":119.286,"text":"Burnham said this week that Britain should “value the hard hat as much as the graduation cap”, as he announced plans for the school curriculums to be tailored to local employers."}],[{"start":128.405,"text":"Kramer said there would be a need for additional subsidies to fund internships and work experience to help people into work."}],[{"start":137.16,"text":"He stressed that the group of top UK universities remained among the best in the world after those in the US, but that constraints on their operations meant they were losing out to those in other countries such as China."}],[{"start":149.2,"text":"UK universities were too dependent on the government for income, he said, setting out a long-term objective at LSE to move towards a third of its support from endowment income and philanthropy, a third from fees and the rest from other activities."}],[{"start":162.151,"text":"At a time when some British universities, including Exeter, have targeted the humanities in recent budget cuts in favour of subjects such as engineering, LSE remains focused on the social sciences."}],[{"start":174.09,"text":"“We should recognise that the educational provision that comes from social sciences, humanities and the arts is equally relevant and important to long-term economic growth,” Kramer said."}],[{"start":185.44,"text":"“Just inventing things doesn’t mean you’ve created the environment in which they flourish. The question of how to keep start-ups in the UK is about economics, politics and law.”"}],[{"start":193.985,"text":"At a time of labour market disruption partly driven by the uptake of artificial intelligence, he pointed to recruiters’ calls for skills from graduates such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration and an interest in continued learning."}],[{"start":207.66,"text":"But he argued that universities had always offered such training and needed clearer guidance from employers on the technical skills around which to design those broader human capacities."}],[{"start":217.03,"text":"“The problem is the employers themselves don’t yet know,” he said."}],[{"start":221.44,"text":"He called for the introduction of automatic annual inflation increases to tuition fees covered by UK student loans to allow for long-term financial planning, as well as a simplification of tax rebates for donors."}],[{"start":233.425,"text":"He also warned that tolerating or encouraging university mergers risked proving misguided. “There is some thinking that the way to capture efficiency is through mergers. But you need to have cultural matches or it turns out to be worse. It’s more likely to create problems.”"}],[{"start":252.4,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1785568451_9581.mp3"}