The leader of a soon-to-be-merged university has said the union is a?strategic decision and not a?reflection of?financial pressures, while acknowledging that other institutions might opt to?seek security together in?straitened times.

Health-focused St George¡¯s, University of London will join City, University of London later this year, creating City St?George¡¯s, University of?London.

The institutions have portrayed the marriage as a bid to?become a?¡°health powerhouse¡± that will also bring ¡°significant advantages in terms of scale, reach, capability, and resilience¡±.

Some leaders have predicted that the current financial pressures in the English sector ¨C driven by frozen domestic tuition fees and the unpredictability of international student recruitment ¨C might force more institutions into mergers.

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Sir Anthony Finkelstein, the current president of City and future leader of City St?George¡¯s, acknowledged this possibility but told Times Higher Education that the merger was the right strategic fit for the two institutions.

¡°I think that higher education in London is due for a bit of a shake-out; yes, I?believe an institution that is broader and more scaled is more resilient in the current environment; and yes, I?personally believe that a tough environment is the right time to take risks,¡± Sir Anthony said.

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¡°That¡¯s the time when you need to be bolder strategically, but in broad terms this is the working-through of our strategy and position and ambitions, and not to do with the immediate environment.¡±

Sir Anthony said there would ¡°probably¡± be more mergers to come but cautioned leaders against them unless they were confident strategically.

¡°You don¡¯t have to go very far into a merge process to understand that the costs go up before the benefit,¡± he said.

¡°If you feel rocky financially, it may not be the wisest thing or may not be the easiest thing to achieve.¡±

Instead, Sir Anthony said, public investment and help for universities to restructure and innovate should be a government priority.

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¡°I believe profoundly that we could educate at lower unit cost, but to do so requires innovation [and] requires workforce structure changes which need investment to achieve,¡± he added.

¡°If the political parties are unwilling to change the funding system, they must be willing to provide us with investment support to restructure.¡±

The merger comes about 18 months after City¡¯s acquisition of the prestigious performing arts school Urdang.

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Most current St?George¡¯s staff will join researchers from City¡¯s School of Health and Psychological Sciences to form a larger school of health, medicine and psychological sciences, in a bid to meet London¡¯s ¡°critical healthcare workforce needs¡±.

Sir Anthony, a former head of computer science at UCL, said the new institution was not trying to be ¡°another UCL¡± but rather was seeking to place itself alongside other major players in the capital.

¡°We want to be something different, and we want to and are addressing a different demographic, highly successfully,¡± he said.

¡°I think there¡¯s room for a diversity of models. I?think the higher education sector is immensely homogenising.

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¡°It pushes institutions in some senses together, and I?think we want to resist that pressure and construct something that provides a really distinct offering ¨C both in terms of the education and research.¡±

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com