Leaders of the soon-to-be-merged universities said the merger was a strategic decision and not a reflection of financial pressure, while others chose to seek security together when they were in trouble. I acknowledged that it is possible.
St George’s, University of London, which focuses on health, will merge with City, University of London later this year to create St George’s, City, University of London.
Both organizations portray the marriage as an attempt to become a “medical powerhouse” that also offers “significant advantages in scale, scope, capacity and resilience.”
Some leaders predict that current financial pressures on English departments due to domestic tuition fee freezes and the unpredictability of international recruitment could force more institutions to merge. .
Sir Anthony Finkelstein, current City president and future City St George’s leader, acknowledged this possibility, but said: times higher education The merger appears to have been a strategic fit for the two institutions.
“I think higher education in London should be reformed a bit. Yes, I believe that broader and larger institutions are more resilient in the current environment. Yes, I believe that individuals We believe that a challenging environment is the right time to take risks,” Sir Anthony said.
“This is a time where we need to be bolder strategically, but broadly speaking this is about delivering on our strategy, position and ambitions, and is independent of the immediate environment.”
Sir Anthony said there would “probably” be more mergers in the future, but warned leaders not to do so unless they were strategically confident.
“You don’t have to go deep into the merger process to understand that costs go up before profits,” he said.
“If you feel financially unstable, it may not be the wisest thing to do or the easiest thing to accomplish.”
Instead, public investment and support for university restructuring and innovation should be the government’s priority, Sir Anthony said.
“We strongly believe that we can educate at a lower cost, but that requires innovation.” [and] “We need changes in the workforce structure, and that will require investment,” he added.
“If political parties are reluctant to change their funding system, they should be willing to provide investment support to rebuild.”
The merger comes about 18 months after Citi acquired the prestigious performing arts school Urdan.
Most of St George’s current staff will join researchers from the city’s School of Health and Psychological Sciences to help meet London’s “critical health workforce needs”, with the aim of meeting London’s “critical health worker needs”. It is planned to establish a school of psychological science.
Sir Anthony, former head of UCL’s computer science department, said the new institution was not trying to become “another UCL”, but to be on par with the capital’s other major companies. Stated.
“We want to be something different, we want to reach a different demographic, and we’ve been very successful,” he said.
“I think there is room for diverse models. I think the higher education sector has become very homogenized.
“It unites the institutions in some ways, and we want to resist that pressure and build something that offers truly unique services both in terms of teaching and research.”