Memorandum Submitted by Universities UK (CBPS 90)

Cross Border enquiry

You may not already be aware but Universities UK consists of three national councils, the England and Northern Ireland Council (E&NIC), Universities Scotland (US) and Higher Education Wales (HEW). Higher Education Wales (HEW) was established in 1996 to represent the higher education sector in Wales. HEW is the national council in Wales of Universities UK (formerly the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the United Kingdom). Its membership encompasses all the heads of the universities and higher education institutions in Wales. HEW normally meets six times a year; it elects the Chair and Vice-Chair to serve for a period of two years and works closely with Universities UK on UK-wide matters. Individual Vice Chancellors and Principals also sit on Universities UK policy committees looking at higher education policies from a UK wide perspective.

Higher Education Wales has already submitted written evidence covering these issues such as the dual support system of research, overall UK higher education policy co-ordination and the investment gap in Wales. Therefore, for the reasons above we feel that higher education issues have been sufficiently covered by their submission.

The Committee will however be interested to know that Universities UK has a report on the impact of devolution on higher education being published over the summer. We will circulate this to the Committee once it has been published.

Both Universities UK and Higher Education Wales have met with Welsh MPs at the recent Parliamentary Breakfast attended by your Chairman, Dr Hywel Francis MP and also hosted a lunch with Paul Murphy MP, the Secretary of State for Wales, here at Woburn House to talk about these very issues.

4 June 2008