Brexit, universities and communications

What are the main issues facing advancement professionals, and what can we do next? Andy Westwood, Associate Vice President for Public Affairs at the University of Manchester explains

It’s fair to say that the vast majority of those working or studying in universities didn’t want the UK leave to the EU. We shouldn’t of course forget that there were clearly some who did, but working in higher education, having or working towards a degree and being some kind of expert immeasurably increased the chances of voting to remain. So coming to terms with the fact that this also ended up coinciding with the losing side has led to a whole raft of issues for UK universities to confront. Some are practical and some are existential — all are difficult.

To my mind there are four sets of issues and resulting tasks for CASE professionals working in UK universities.

The first is practical and immediate and has largely been determined by now. That has been the calculation of immediate impact — the number of students and staff from the EU, the value of research income and in some cases the loans or investments partly financed by EU bodies such as the EIB. This in many ways has been the easiest bit to measure and to tackle. Almost all universities have tried to reassure staff, students and partners that nothing changes at least in the short term and that they will be doing their level best to ensure that this remains the case for the longer term too. But every university knows the numbers — of people and of income — that are now at risk.

The second is harder to approach with such precision because it refers to international income and activity that goes beyond Europe. Most universities have ambitious targets for such work and many have been extremely successful in setting and achieving such goals. Increasingly this includes philanthropy and the donors, trusts, firms and individuals that often have many university relationships, interests and choices throughout the world. We have a significant job on our hands here.

We must try to contain the wider fallout — the inevitable perceptions of the UK turning its back on the world and on the values of internationalisation.

New controls on immigration and free movement may not help such perceptions. Will international students, partners and funders now believe that we are less welcoming, less open and less friendly than before?

The third category of issue relates to deals now being struck and the policies that Theresa May’s Government chooses to deliver. What type of Brexit deal will be done? How ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ will it be and how will the difficult politics of the referendum campaign spill over into the government’s new approach? What opportunities will be thrown up by new domestic and international agendas? More international partnerships and trade promotion abroad? More efforts for industrial strategy and social mobility at home?

In all cases the job is to be influential — to lobby, remind, reassert the role and impact of universities in a new world.

This is doubly important because Treasury forecasts for growth are likely to be pretty cautious for the next few years and there is likely to be rather less public money around to spend than we might have thought. Furthermore the government will have new priorities and there is no guarantee that universities, science and research will be at or near the front of the queue.

The fourth area is perhaps the most challenging of all and it comes back to the referendum itself. Why were universities on the losing side? Why were high profile interventions ignored and experts so easily dismissed? We came, we spoke and no one listened. We weren’t relevant. We weren’t central to the political discussion or to the ideas and debates about the UK’s future. That still feels pretty hard to take.

This is an existential issue and rather more difficult to answer. So many voters and communities seemed to reject so much that universities stand for and so much that we thought mattered. The knowledge economy has not been anywhere near universal and life chances for many have stalled.

With the notable exception of London and Scotland, most universities now find themselves in or near places that voted overwhelmingly against the political and economic status quo — against the ideas that we thought mattered most.

What can we do to respond to each of these things?

The first and second sets of issues involve more and better communications as well as new strategic thinking. So too does the third — where lobbying and government influence may reduce the impact and manage some of the risks but also open up new opportunities for partnership, investment and trade. But the fourth — although more difficult is likely to be the most important of all. We need to better describe our role and purpose in the world — starting on our doorstep. Universities need to articulate a much wider benefit far beyond those that work or study in them.

Rediscovering our public and civic mission will only support everything else that we want to achieve.

Persuading sceptical voters that a successful, growing economy still rests — perhaps even more than ever before — on science, knowledge and the institutions that provide it. But perhaps the biggest lesson of all is not that we shout louder in those places or at those people that didn’t want to hear what we were saying or that couldn’t have cared less.

Communication is a two way process. It isn’t just about what we choose to say, although clearly there are many things that we might choose to say differently. This is also a moment where we must accept that we don’t have all of the answers. As communications, fundraising or public affairs professionals, we also need to prove that we are able to listen better, to learn and to understand what more we can do.

Andy Westwood is Associate Vice President for Public Affairs at the University of Manchester and Professor of Politics and Policy, University of Winchester and spoke on the Brexit panel at the CASE Europe Annual Conference 2016 in Brussels. Registration is now open for the CASE Europe Annual Conference 2017, taking place in Birmingham 28 August — 1 September.