Esta semana se dio a conocer el Informe Stronger together. Businesses and universities in turbulent times, preparado por el Grupo de Tarea sobre Educación Superior de la Confederación Británica de Industrias (CBI Higher Education Task Force). The CBI is the UK’s top business lobby organisation. Our specialist services and unmatched influence with government, policymakers, legislators, and unions mean we can get the best deal for business at home and abroad.
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Índice
Foreword by Sam Laidlaw 04
Executive summary 05
1 What business wants from higher education 10
2 Now is a critical time to act 17
3 Why business must do more 21
4 Delivering business outcomes in tough financial times 31
5 How universities can do more for business 36
6 Ensuring students have the skills to succeed 44
Conclusion 49
HE Task Force members 50
Annex 51
References 52
Prólogo
The UK has a world class higher education sector. But it faces some urgent challenges including the changing needs of business, intensifying international competition and constrained public sector funding.
Effective collaboration between the higher education sector, business and government will be critical to the UK’s economic recovery and sustainable international competitiveness.
This report was prepared on behalf of business to offer recommendations on how business, the higher education sector and government can each contribute to ensuring:
• Future students have the best chance of success in an increasingly competitive world
• The capabilities of the higher education sector are fully utilised to equip our existing workforce with the skills necessary for today and tomorrow’s world
• Research and innovation partnerships between business and higher education have the best chance of success.
Although written from a business perspective, this report recognises that business is not the only stakeholder and that universities have a wider social role to fulfil. Equally all stakeholders, including government, have some difficult choices to make.
We were fortunate in having on this Task Force the vice-chancellors of three eminent universities, as well as business leaders from different sectors, representing both large and small employers.
While there may have been differences of emphasis among Task Force members, all have endorsed the content of this report and we hope the initiatives they have outlined will be followed by businesses across the country.
Members were unanimous that the challenges are real and urgent. Business has to step up to the challenge, as does the higher education sector, in providing highly employable graduates and value for money. Finally government must provide the incentives, framework and funding necessary for sustainable success.
Sam Laidlaw
Chairman, CBI Higher Education Task Force and CEO, Centrica plc

BUSINESS MUST DO MORE TO HELP MAINTAIN A WORLD CLASS HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM – MAJOR NEW REPORT
CBI Task Force calls for far-reaching changes to maintain quality
With the UK’s higher education (HE) system facing tough choices posed by recession and competition from abroad, business must do even more than it does to work with universities and the government to help maintain the UK’s international competitiveness, a major new report says today (Monday).
The report, the culmination of a year’s work by the CBI Higher Education Task Force – comprising both business and universities – also says that the rapid rise in student numbers, coupled with a severe strain on public finances, makes current public funding levels unsustainable.
The Task Force’s report, Stronger together – businesses and universities in turbulent times, highlights the vital contribution that excellence in higher education makes to business competitiveness and argues that: “new thinking is required on the financing, structure and mission of our universities if they are to sustain and strengthen their position in a rapidly changing environment”. This means that government, universities and students, as well as business, will have to do more if they are to maintain the strength and the quality of HE in the UK.
The UK’s HE sector is one of the most successful in the world, and the report acknowledges that universities are a “vital public good”. Business needs excellent universities to produce the graduates, postgraduates, research and innovation that are required to drive economic growth and prosperity.
The UK compares quite favourably with similar countries on how many young people go to university, and undergraduate numbers have risen by 35 per cent since 1997. However, the proportion of UK graduates taking science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) degrees has declined by 20 per cent since 1999-2000, and the CBI wants to see more young people to continue with these subjects after the age of 16.
Sam Laidlaw, Chairman of the CBI HE Task Force and CEO of Centrica, said:
“The UK has a world-class higher education sector. But it faces some urgent challenges including the changing needs of business, intensifying international competition, and constrained public sector funding. Universities and government cannot deliver a world class service alone.
“Effective collaboration between the higher education sector, business and government will be critical to the UK’s economic recovery and sustainable international competitiveness. Business must also make a sustained effort in supporting higher education. To this end, I am pleased that as a Task Force we have made a strong commitment to provide the support needed to help students build the employability and technical skills that are so important.”
The report proposes that more businesses should work with universities to:
Sponsor students studying subjects relevant to business, such as science and technology.
Provide financial support to new graduates, through bonuses when they sign on with the firm.
Offer more opportunities for internships, placements, work experience or projects.
View working with universities as part of core innovation activity.
Richard Lambert, CBI Director-General, said:
“Maintaining a world-class higher education system is vital to the UK’s future competitiveness, and we should sustain current levels of investment in teaching and research, which are low by international standards. Strong leadership is also needed to minimise the risk of long-term decline.
“Business should engage more with universities, both financially and intellectually. More firms should help design and pay for courses for the benefit of the current and future workforce, and more firms should offer students practical work experience.
“In return for this extra investment of time and money, business will want to see more emphasis given to certain subjects, such as science, technology, engineering and maths. Languages are also seen to be important, and the Task Force argues that more should be done to prepare students for the world of work, and teach them the generic skills that will help smooth their pathway into employment.”
The expansion of higher education and the state of public finances is putting an increasing strain on resources. The government has already asked universities in England to make savings of £180 million between 2009 and 2011, and many are budgeting for cuts between 10 to 20 per cent.
To preserve the quality of university teaching and research, the report warns that if cuts have to be made, they should be focused on what, by international standards, are generous levels of funding for student support and recommends that the government temporarily drops its target of 50 per cent of 18 to 30-year-olds participating in higher education.
Mr Lambert added: “The economic downturn makes cuts to public funding for HE inevitable, so new sources of funding have to be found. Universities and business must work together to preserve the quality of teaching and research, waste in the HE system must be cut, with universities sharing more of their services and consolidating to make efficiencies.
“On funding, our Task Force considered – and rejected – three options open to the government: cutting research funding, slashing teaching budgets and reducing student numbers. Instead, we say that savings should come from the student support system. Of course, it’s never easy to ask students to pay more, but the UK’s student support is on a par with some of the most generous in the world, and the priority must be to preserve quality as well as assisting those unable to pay to ensure that higher education remains open to all.”
The report argues that:
The government’s target for 50 per cent of 18-30 year-olds to participate in HE should be dropped for the time being. Given financial pressures, the focus should be on quality not quantity. Following the surge in numbers over recent decades, the UK compares pretty well with similar countries and the priority must be on continuing to raise the performance at the school level.
Tuition fee loans should be provided at the government’s cost of borrowing. This should be phased in over a three-year period to avoid impacting on current students, and would deliver £1.4 billion savings per year.
Maintenance grants should be focused on those most in need, reversing the government’s recent changes and returning support to 2006-7 income thresholds. Research shows the main barrier to university is attainment prior to university and that student applications have not increased as a result of the rise in income thresholds implemented in 2007-8, so it is unlikely this change would have an adverse impact on applications. It will be increasingly important for universities, with the support of business to provide the extra bursaries that will be needed to ensure that higher education remains open to all.
An increase in fees appears inevitable. With the forthcoming review of tuition fees, likely to be up and running by the end of the year, the choice is between finding new money to put into the system or seeing student numbers decline. Universities UK has calculated that increasing the cap to £5,000 from 2012 in England would deliver an annual increase in income for universities of £1.25 billion from 2014, without leading to a decline in student demand.
The report contains a number of challenges to the universities. It argues they should focus on their strengths, and become more specialised, but also more productive by sharing more resources. The way teaching is funded also needs to change – to give students more opportunities for work experience during their degree, encourage new and innovative teaching methods and help universities expand numbers for subjects, where there is demand, within overall public funding limits.
Commitment from business:
The report contains commitments made by the 13 business members of the Task Force, over and above what they already do with the HE sector. These include:
AstraZeneca: ensure current and future needs for their sector are clearly communicated, and work with trade bodies to ensure students have easy access to careers information and opportunities in the industry.
Balfour Beatty: offer over 100 internships or placements in 2010, extend collaboration with universities on workforce development and encourage more links with universities.
Centrica: increase graduate programme through the downturn to 60 graduates, increase placements and internships by 50% to 75 in 2010, sponsor 10 students in STEM disciplines and provide sign-on bonus to support graduate tuition fees.
Imes Group: offer sign-on bonuses to graduate recruits with relevant STEM qualifications, and MSc placements and internships to undergraduates.
Kingfisher: develop its current internship programme for undergraduates into a more formal recruitment programme for students upon graduation, with a chance to join a new management training scheme from Autumn 2010.
KPMG: set up a programme for first year students with the aim of providing them with business understanding and commercial experience, with a pilot programme in 2010 for 20 students, and run a vacation programme on a paid basis for 100 students in their second year.
McDonald’s: 50 graduate positions on its management training programme, 20 work placements for pre-university students, and 20 one-year internships in 2010.
Microsoft: offer 100 graduate internships in 2009-10 and a sign-on bonus scheme to support graduates pay off tuition fees.
Network Rail: double its number of graduate vacancies in 2010, aiming to recruit 150 graduates at Bachelor level, up to 80 at Masters level, and 25 at Foundation level.
Nissan: increase numbers of students on its Sunderland campus project to support graduates taking work-based Masters courses, taking 15 graduates in 2009 and a further 15 in 2010.
QinetiQ: increase its active STEM ambassadors working with schools and national STEM educational projects to 200, expand its internship programme to offer a minimum of 50 students work experience, Year in Industry or sponsorship opportunities by 2010.
Shell UK: maintain graduate recruitment though the downturn, hiring 120 UK graduates by the end of 2009, and offer programme of internships and work experience programmes for more than 50 undergraduates.
Thomson Reuters: sign up to the Graduate Talent Pool initiative, and expand its number of internships to over 50 for 2009-10.