Event

Broke and broken? What TRAC data tells us about higher education finances

This report from UK think tank HEPI discusses the mounting financial pressure UK universities are currently under.

Join HEPI and the Policy Institute at King’s College London for a free webinar looking at the mounting financial pressure UK universities are currently under.

With 41% of providers in deficit in 2023-24 and forecasts suggesting this could nearly double by 2027-28, the sustainability of the higher education system has become a pressing concern for policymakers, regulators and higher education institutions alike. The Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) methodology is a system designed to generate information about the costs and cost-recovery of universities’ activities. According to the latest annual TRAC data, the sector’s research activity runs at a deficit of over £5bn. But despite TRAC being in place for 25 years now, recent studies show that understanding and use of the data is limited.

Drawing on a new report by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, this discussion – hosted in partnership with the Higher Education Policy Institute – will explain TRAC data, what it is telling us, and its value and limitations in helping policymakers and institutional leaders to manage higher education towards a more sustainable future.

We’ll unpack how universities balance relatively stable but underfunded income streams against higher-margin but volatile sources – and the implications from having such a complex and increasingly fragile system for such a vital part of our national skills infrastructure.

Speakers

Professor Shitij Kapur – Vice-Chancellor & President of King’s College London (Chair)

Professor Jackie Labbe – Chair of the TRAC Development Group and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, University of Gloucestershire

Professor Baroness Alison Wolf DBE – Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London and cross-bench peer in the House of Lords

Richard Salter – Director of Analytics, King’s College London

Nick Hillman OBE – Director, Higher Education Policy Institute