The announcement comes hot on the heels of a new Universities UK and Jisc report, calling for practical reform to enable deeper collaboration, shared services, and even mergers and chimes with the radical collaboration playbook from recent UUK work with KPMG / Mills and Reeves.
There is a hint that beyond bold headlines and existential crises, the discussion is becoming more nuanced – not every institution will merge or become part of a multi-university group, but most institutions can explore more radical shared service options and/or ways of working in local and regional collaboration to cut costs, drive efficiency and generate income.
At SUMS Consulting, we’ve anticipated this shift. At our 2024 SUMS Annual Conference, we hosted a provocative session “Are university shared services and mergers still as credible as an April fool?”, led by Rhiannon Birch, now Managing Consultant at SUMS. The session explored the strategic balancing act institutions face: cutting costs while driving growth. Our message was clear – shared services and mergers are central to the future of a sustainable and resilient sector.
And we’ve thought about the practicalities too. Our recent co-authored report with the OIA, Putting students first: Managing the impact of higher education provider closure sets out a framework for mitigating the risk of market exit by better financial management and governance as well as exploring radical strategic options, including merger and takeovers and, if this is not possible, how to prepare for a well-managed exit.
Contact us to find out more about how SUMS can support you in looking at your strategic options, implementing practical solutions such as the framework we developed with the OIA, identifying and evaluating the early warning signs in your financial position, and working smarter to benefit your student, staff and partner communities: consulting@sums.ac.uk or visit our website for the latest news about our SUMS Annual Conference 2026.
