New universities could be created across the UK to help deliver the Westminster government’s “levelling-up” agenda and give people the skills needed to bring economic prosperity to deprived areas, according to a Cabinet minister.

Michael Gove, secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, said he would support the opening of new institutions in the “medium term”, adding that he believed there was still scope for expanding the number of students in higher education.

The former education secretary – who now leads on the levelling-up agenda – was speaking at an event organised by Lifelong Education Commission and outlined some of his thinking on the role that universities could play in delivering on pledges to ensure more people are completing high-quality skills training. 

Asked directly whether he would like to see new universities created to support levelling up “in places like Doncaster, Wigan and Grimsby”, he replied: “Yes, I would.”

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But he stressed that he wanted to see a “better appreciation of the sorts of courses which guarantee students greater chances of employment and also by definition are more in demand across the economy”.

Mr Gove said it wasn’t for the government to “pick winners” and said university autonomy should be respected, but he was looking for “both universities and students to respond to the information we can provide about value for money and employability of particular courses”.

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The Cabinet minister last month unveiled his long-awaited levelling-up strategy that aims to address regional disparities in the UK and support areas that many feel have been left behind.

It included a pledge to increase spending on research and development outside the south-east of England by 40 per cent by 2030. Twelve missions intended to level up the country were also announced, including a commitment to increase the number of people completing skills courses annually to 200,000, with 80,000 of them coming from the lowest-skilled areas.

Mr Gove said he had found “huge appetite” among higher education leaders to engage in these debates, adding that they are “very, very keen to ensure they can select from the broadest possible pool of students”.

He added that vice-chancellors were “thinking hard about how they can make the case for that R&D funding being routed through their institutions in order to reinforce the economic prospects of their area”.

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Doncaster was recently praised in a report by thinktank ResPublica for the Lifelong Education Commission as representing a “new model for levelling-up skills” but the authors said attracting its own university was not seen as a major aim.

Instead, a partnership between the town’s council and various public, private, voluntary and community sector organisations – including universities based elsewhere – is working to identify skills gaps in Doncaster’s key sectors and train people up to fill them by achieving qualifications below degree level.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com