A leading arts university is embarking on a plan to double its student numbers, largely via online teaching, to boost its ¡°social purpose¡± and financial health despite England¡¯s funding freeze, led by the architect of Tony Blair¡¯s 50 per cent higher education participation target.

James Purnell, a former Labour Cabinet minister and BBC director of strategy and digital, became vice-chancellor of University of the Arts London ¨C made up of six colleges, including Central Saint Martins ¨C in March 2021.

Now UAL has published a?, titled The World Needs Creativity, that includes a policy to bring ¡°a high-quality creative education to more students than ever before¡±, increasing the number of students on courses delivered in London by 5,000, with ¡°online and low-residency courses providing 15,000 places¡± additionally.

¡°If you look at tables of who is most applied to and who is most exclusive, we are in those tables,¡± Mr Purnell told?Times Higher Education. ¡°We don¡¯t want to be defined as exclusive; we want to be defined as inclusive. So growing is a way of delivering both that access and also responding to wider [student] demand.¡±

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Meanwhile, the pandemic brought ¡°a real-life experiment on what digital learning is like¡± and a realisation that ¡°there¡¯s no reason to cap our number of students based on the size of our buildings; we can actually offer online as an alternative¡±.

Is this expansion about UAL¡¯s financial sustainability?

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¡°I think there are other models on which we would be sustainable,¡± said Mr Purnell. ¡°The fundamental point of the strategy is we¡¯re trying to design the university around what we¡¯re here for, around our social purpose. And by being able to grow, that we can generate surplus which we can then invest in our climate work, or anti-racism work, or in research, or in supporting our staff.¡±

Another element of UAL¡¯s strategy is ¡°changing the world through our creative endeavour¡±, building on existing work such as its Centre for Sustainable Fashion, Decolonising Arts Institute and Refugee Journalism Project.

Recent news of a further two-year?freeze of the tuition fee cap?at ?9,250 ¨C amounting to a freeze of at least seven years in total ¨C will mean UAL having to make efficiency savings, said Mr Purnell. ¡°But the better way of responding to it [the fees freeze] is having sensible growth, which allows you to have a surplus, which means you can reinvest and avoid having to make inappropriate cuts,¡± he added.

Some may be sceptical about delivering arts courses online. But, during the pandemic, said Mr Purnell, ¡°some of our courses that you would think would be most difficult to do online did brilliantly online. Ceramics ¨C it¡¯s hard to think of anything more tactile than that.¡±

Mr Purnell argued that UAL could ¡°do quality at scale¡±, citing Arizona State University as an example of doing that.

He added: ¡°We¡¯re going to discover how you do student experience online¡­Academic support, libraries, social and educational communities ¨C all of those things we will have to do in a way which is appropriate for those courses. And that¡¯s exciting.¡±

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Back in 1999, Mr Purnell¡¯s work in the Number 10 Policy Unit included a paper for then Labour prime minister Mr Blair, co-authored with London School of Economics economist David Soskice, which recommended an increase in England¡¯s higher education participation rate. The aim was ¡°getting at least up to where the South Koreas, the Americas, the Scandinavians were¡±, recalled Mr Purnell.

That became Mr Blair¡¯s commitment for 50 per cent of young people to enter higher education ¨C still viewed as a totemic error by?Conservative critics of expansion.

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¡°The virtue of the 50 per cent [target] was it overcame what tended to happen, which is you¡¯d have a period of expansion, then the Treasury would get worried about the cost and they would cap it,¡± said Mr Purnell.

He described the current Tory government¡¯s plan?for a?Lifelong Loan Entitlement?as ¡°a 100 per cent [participation] target in effect, for everybody¡± across post-18 education.

¡°The beauty of the policy, if it remains pure, is instead of it being politicians who decide if it¡¯s 50 per cent or 75 per cent [participation], it will be decided by individuals working out where they spend their ?37,000 over the course of their lives,¡± he said.

Expansion combined with tuition fees gave students the ¡°core decision-making power¡± in the system, bringing greater provision in areas such as fashion that have proved key for the economy, Mr Purnell argued.

He continued: ¡°In the future, we should have a system which is learner led ¨C collectively that will get to the best outcomes.

¡°That does mean the sector will have to be supported to grow and be flexible. That¡¯s why we think that expansion and using online is going to be a key part of the mix.¡±

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john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com