UK universities need to stop coming up with reasons not to share services and consider whether collaboration can extend to swapping modules across institutions as well, according to a vice-chancellor.

A funding crisis in the higher education sector has forced what are often competitor providers into?finding ways to collaborate, with many suggesting that joint back-office functions?would be?one way to save money.

The fact that VAT is added on to a shared service ¨C meaning it costs an additional 20 per cent ¨C is often held up as a barrier, but Ken Sloan, vice-chancellor of Harper Adams University in Shropshire, said this was not insurmountable.

¡°On the shared services argument, the sector needs to stop acting like VAT is the issue ¨C everything else is the issue,¡± Professor Sloan told?Times Higher Education¡¯s THE Campus Live event in Birmingham.

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¡°If there are better organisations that can help you to deliver a more cost-effective and better quality thing, clearly we should be thinking much more seriously about it.¡±

Professor Sloan, who previously worked for the outsourcing firm Serco in between two stints at the University of Warwick, said he was given the ¡°cold shoulder¡± and treated as an ¡°alien¡± when attempting to have conversations with sector leaders, but felt there was a place for such organisations in the sector.

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And he said that collaboration should not stop at back-office functions but could?extend to the courses universities offer as well.

¡°Looking at disciplinary coverage across the country, we should be looking at how we support each other,¡± Professor Sloan, who also chairs the mission group GuildHE, said.

¡°I know students at my institution would love to access other modules at other institutions as part of that.¡±

He said even just starting discussions about joint modules between institutions had proven complex but there were ¡°plenty of ways the sector can make some meaningful change and retain the integrity of the institution¡±.

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Professor Sloan said there was a willingness among universities to consider new ways of using their resources, but government had to offer an incentive ¡°either positive or negative¡± or it would not happen.

¡°It is entirely right that we should be willing partners and envisage a different approach and system¡­But there does need to be some oil in the wheels¡± he added.?

¡°There¡¯s a recognition in the NHS that it is going to take some funding to deliver transformation. There needs to be the same recognition if you want to deliver a tertiary education system at the end of it.¡±

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com