Labour has been urged to dispel the narratives growing under the Conservative government that universities are ¡°full of woke liberals out to destroy the country¡±, and that higher education expansion has produced ¡°graduate burger flippers¡±.

A?university leader and an economist?set out their cases at a fringe event at the Labour conference in Liverpool, hosted by the University Alliance.

Sitting on a panel alongside shadow higher education minister Matt Western, Coventry University provost Ian Dunn made a ¡°plea¡± for ¡°changing the tone that¡¯s grown at the moment, particularly in certain parts ¨C The?Times?and The [Daily]?Telegraph?¨C [that] universities are full of woke liberals who are out to destroy the country¡­It¡¯s just not true.¡±

Another member of the panel, Steve Coulter, head of industrial strategy, skills and sustainability at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, highlighted its?recent report?which argued that?higher education expansion?has ¡°propped up¡± the UK economy in recent years and the Tories risked a ¡°grave mistake¡± in?turning away from the sector.

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That study¡¯s call for 70 per cent higher education participation by 2040 met with ¡°lots of spluttering from the?Telegraph¡±, but had used ¡°growth accounting¡± analysis to pinpoint the contribution of physical capital, human capital and technology to growth, finding higher education expansion was ¡°about the only thing contributing to our paltry growth rate¡±, said Dr Coulter, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics¡¯ European Institute.

¡°If you pull the rug out from education by¡­dissing universities and saying they are ¡®woke¡¯ and saying too many people are going there to become burger flippers, then you remove a really important source of human capital,¡± he continued.

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¡°We have a world-class university system. Students want to study there; companies want to hire them. Why mess with this?¡±

The growing importance of artificial intelligence and automation ¡°makes the case for [higher education] expansion even more compelling¡±, he added, given graduates have the skills ¡°complementary to the technologies¡± ¨C technical knowledge but also soft skills, collaboration and creativity.

¡°There are already severe skills shortages in the labour market,¡± mainly in ¡°graduate-heavy sectors¡± such as professional services and high-value manufacturing, argued Dr Coulter.

He added: ¡°You don¡¯t want to hobble the one part of the education system¡­that is functioning very well, which is higher education. You need to take a long-term view of where our skills needs in the economy lie.¡±

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The other pleas from Mr Dunn, who stressed Coventry¡¯s reputation as an innovator, were for further and higher education to be allowed to work ¡°in much closer partnerships to allow them to operate together¡±, which would ¡°reduce the cost of back offices, putting more money into education¡±, meaning universities and colleges could work with ¡°a small- and medium-sized employer for all of their needs¡± across different qualification levels and ¡°not just part of their needs¡±.

And on digital skills, he said: ¡°Give us opportunities to create new models, to liberate some of the possibilities that exist, to develop at scale.¡±

It was, he added, ¡°no good¡± creating 100 places in AI ¡°in a wonderful interdisciplinary school in London ¨C we need those skills across the country¡±.

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com