An Advocate in a High Place. (April 20, 2007)

Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe

    Diana Warwick (61) was appointed Chief Executive of Universities UK (comparable to our Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee) in 1995. In 1999  she was created a Labour life peer as Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe and as such she sits in the House of Lords as Lady Warwick.

Yesterday she took part in a House of Lords debate in which she made the case for the key role Britain's universities play in helping to shape the future of the nation.

Prior to the debate she said, "At such an eventful time in British politics, I hope the debate will help ensure that higher education remains firmly on the agenda. And with some months to go before the outcome of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review is known, I am delighted that the House of Lords is focusing a whole debate on the economic importance of our higher education sector.”

And she told the Lords the contribution of higher education is, "both far-reaching and substantial", citing the sector's total output of £45.1billion, the 580,000 jobs in the sector and the £3.6billion income from international students.

Lady Warwick said, "Much of this will be well understood [by members of this House]. But the contribution of our universities goes beyond this direct impact. As Universities UK’s Spending Review submission makes clear, the UK’s higher education institutions are vital to addressing many of the UK’s long-term challenges.

"Our world class research departments in both the social sciences and the sciences are essential to combating and understanding the threat of global conflict and terrorism; with regard to our ageing population, higher education has a key role in equipping the UK workforce to be more productive for longer; and finally universities are at the forefront of the green agenda – it is their research and innovation that is identifying some of the solutions for tackling climate change and the threat to natural resources. These are all essential to the Government’s future policy for the country.

“But we mustn’t forget that the people who work in our institutions are critical to our success and global standing. As last week’s DTI report testified, the productivity and quality of researchers in the UK is matching - and in many disciplines, exceeding - the United States. We produce 9% of the world's scientific papers and achieve a 12% citation share with only 4.5% of the world's spend on science."

Nevertheless, while acknowledging that higher education finances have improved since 2001 and is expected to improve further with the advent of variable fees, Lady Warwick argued that the right level of continued investment is vital, "Through the Spending Review I urge the Government to maintain the unit of funding for teaching, to provide more money for teaching infrastructure, such as buildings and equipment, and to invest further in Knowledge Transfer through the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF). Without these, universities will not be able to deliver on these key challenges."