Universities… the magic is still in the margins…

As The Venn: University Leaders Forum announces its return to The Royal Society for June 2026, its Co-Founder Alex Favier reflects on the conversation convened by the inaugural event.

Is collaboration our sector’s superpower?

Again and again at last month’s University Leaders Forum, our participants and our speakers (be they from inside, outside and from countries beyond the UK sector) returned to universities’ propensity for partnership as a possible solution to many of the sector’s current woes.  

The Venn brought together over 175 delegates in defence and celebration of UK higher education for the inaugural event at The Royal Society. Our aim was to take what we sometimes think are the best bits of any conference – the conversations, contacts and connections made in the margins – and provide the space and spark for these to play a prominent role in our programming.

With 15 unconference topics providing practical solutions to thorny problems, 15 Vice-Chancellors setting out real-world challenges as seen from their ‘desks’ and a interactive geopolitical crisis exercise that was as ambitious as it was overcomplicated – we felt that we succeeded in significantly multiplying the interactions and networks between our participants. The delegate dividend we sought to deliver? A net increase in serendipity – and a legacy of connections and conversations between those who joined us that might get picked up tomorrow, the next day or months from now.

In celebration and defence of higher education; together

However, back to collaboration…

We consciously framed the day’s programming in the somewhat Cassandra-esque context of universities struggling to emerge from the geopolitical, socio-cultural and financial perma-crisis currently engulfing global higher education.

Collaboration meant lots of things to different people it seems.

Collaboration within our institutions across professional boundaries (very much the North Star of The Venn). Collaboration between our institutions – regionally, nationally and internationally. But perhaps most interestingly and impactfully of all, collaboration with our places, other organisations and with the mission of the UK government.

However, as Rt Hon Greg Clark gently put it in our opening plenary – universities might want to try being more purposeful in how they wield this collaborative intent and focusing our enthusiasm. We can appear internally disjointed and collectively diffuse - and so should consider focusing on a clearer collaborative offer – perhaps linked to where we share both place and purpose with our potential partners.

This certainly struck a chord with me. Not least because in almost every conversation I have had with someone who worked in a university having come from a role outside of higher education the question “why do you all share and partners with each other so much?” will get asked. Followed by at least 30 minutes of moaning about byzantine university governance and our crap IT/ car parking/ [insert professional service function of choice here].

But if more/ better collaboration was The Venn’s solution to the thorny problem of the permacrisis – what practical steps might we take in going about it?

More telephone, less megaphone?

Addressing this, one of the phrases of the day came from the UK sector’s unofficial Reputation Tsar, Professor Rachel Sandison, Deputy VC, University of Glasgow.

Whilst in the US recently, a senior representative from one of their sector bodies joked that they had a bingo card that they marked off every time a University President said “we just need a ‘Got Milk’ Campaign for the sector”.  Quite apart from the extraordinary cost of that campaign in the 1990s being far outside the realms of any sector body, the consensus is that the era of “just tell them” is over. The collapse in public trust in institutions, the rise of misinformation and the reputational vulnerability of university to culture war flashpoints, all point to us needing a new, more subtle approach to describing what we do.

A more targeted approach to third-party advocacy (highlighting recent alumni campaigns underway at Princeton and many US universities), more apolitical engagement, reframing the civic in terms our local partners understand, clearer alignment to the policy language of the Government’s Growth and Access Missions were all flagged as tactics in this regard.

Do better, do more, but never quite do enough…

Finally, a clear consensus emerging from many of the afternoon’s discussions was that talking about ourselves is just not enough. Instead, we must continue to “do better”. We must also accept that, regardless of how compelling our messaging or extraordinary our achievements, sometimes these this will just be missed or forgotten by policymakers. They may also be demeaned and disregarded by those with more malevolent agendas and intent towards the sector. We need to be better at accepting we can’t convince everyone – and to quote a certain CEO of Universities UK, perhaps we should stop being ‘so Eeyore’ about things and get back on the front foot.

Announcing The Venn University Leaders Forum 2026: for the collaborators

Both Emma and I have been slightly blown away and extremely grateful for the extraordinary levels of support, advocacy and no little faith placed in us by our Advisory Circle, partners and the 30+ speakers and key contributors who took part in the event. But most of all, at a time of restricted budget, time and huge pressures on leaders right across the sector, we are so thankful to all of the day’s participants and delegates who took a chance on a new event.

Because of this support – and some fantastic feedback – we’ve decided to announce that we’ll be returning to The Royal Society on 24 June 2026 with a bigger, more ambitious and unashamedly experimental and risk-taking programme.

Some of the feedback from participants included feeling slightly put-out not to be given specific tasks and actions (by us!) for them to follow-up on. Whilst The Venn is not the sector’s mum (that is actually Vivienne Stern) and has absolutely zero remit to tell anyone what to do or how to do it - we are nonetheless going to try and take this on board.

The Venn was and will remain a collaborative endeavour. We have started it – but it’s not ours – it is for our partners and contributors to shape. To that end, we welcome any ideas for topics, formats, partners, representation – the more ambitious the better. If you want to collaborate with us – then please consider this your invitation and your call to action.

See you in June 2026 – early bird tickets now on sale.