Written by Professor Amelia Hadfield. Amelia is the Founding Director of the Centre for Britain and Europe, Director of CIFAL Surrey and Associate Vice President of External Engagement.

Introduction

Burnham sees the practical delivery of ‘things’ (e.g. infrastructure, housing, green industries), as well as local leadership and civic institutions as engines of renewal. This ought to be good news for British universities, which could play a more prominent, multi-faceted role as co‑investors, talent pipelines, innovation partners and civic anchors. Set against the first blog exploring Burnham’s place‑based goals, I now look at the role of British universities in his national programme, and takeaways specific to Surrey.

Civic Anchors

Like many previous governments, Burnham’s recent statements suggest that he too regards universities as civic anchors, and economic engines. Universities UK are largely in agreement with this perspective, emphasising to Andy Burnham in their letter of 22 July their views on universities’ potentially expanded civic remit, including acting as anchor institutions for research, and catalysts for workforce development, local innovation and social mobility.

The challenge will be ensuring shared expectations can genuinely be forged between both sides, with universities stepping up in three overarching areas:

• improved delivery of tailored skills pipelines, including micro credentials, continuing professional development (CPD), and degree apprenticeships;
• acting as convenors across ‘civic coalitions’ of the commerce, industry, local government and third sector actors in their own regions;
• leveraging relevant and ‘translational research’ and boosting research commercialisation strongly aligned regional industrial priorities.

From knowledge producers to delivery partners: Burnham’s emerging model is moving British universities to shift their emphasis from traditional, inwardly focused research-intensity in their own areas of specialism, to more outward facing applications and implementation OF that research to enhance social impact. Alongside traditional teaching-based activities, universities are likely to be called upon to:

• co‑design curricula and short courses more directly with employers to meet immediate skills needs;
• participate in place‑based investment vehicles and IP‑sharing arrangements to accelerate commercialisation;
• embedding emerging ‘civic metrics’ into their own overarching performance frameworks (e.g. local graduate retention, SME innovation partnerships, demonstrator projects, etc).

Risks and resource realities: The challenge here is considerable. While many university leaders are generally accepting of both the ‘anchor institution’ approach and see universities as necessarily purposeful locally, Burnham may soon be asking universities to perform new public functions without automatic commensurate funding. The tensions this could produce include balancing national research excellence missions against demand for local translational output, capacity constraints in scaling short‑course delivery and coordinating with disparate employer networks, and most importantly, the risk that performance metrics which are tied to local outcomes may ultimately disadvantage universities serving mobile or diverse student bodies.

Policy instruments to unlock university contribution: To operationalise emerging roles for universities, university leads will need to work with Burnham to fashion intelligent policy levers, including:

• targeted funding for university‑industry partnerships and local demonstration projects;
• accreditation and quality flexibilities to allow modular learning and bespoke CPD;
• incentives for universities to locate incubators, testbeds and scale‑up facilities in priority localities.

Opportunities for Surrey:

From our local perspective, strategic alignment with regional industrial priorities Burnham’s place agenda elevates demand for regionally‑tailored innovation and workforce solutions. Surrey can usefully leverage its applied strengths (digital health, advanced manufacturing, energy systems, sustainability) to anchor regional clusters, co‑design demonstrator projects and attract UKRI and local investment to showcase scalable industrial transitions.

In rising to the challenge of an expanded role in skills and modular learning, the policy pivot toward local skills commissioning opens doors (and markets) for university‑delivered modular CPDs, degree apprenticeships and stackable micro credentials. Universities in Surrey and the southeast already have pathways in industry engagement and continuing professional development which can be expanded into formal contractual arrangements with both regional employers and local authorities, to help supply bespoke cohorts for green industries and digital upskilling.

In engaging with the challenge of deepened devolution and widened place-based policy distribution heralded by No 10 North, Surrey’s HEIs can recommit publicly to renewed, deeper civic partnerships and convening power, positioning themselves as impartial brokers by hosting multi‑stakeholder forums, providing local labour market analysis, and chairing commissioning consortia that align training pipelines with capital projects, sustainability, community building and more. The engine for these initiatives will be improved research commercialisation and regional innovation. Place‑based industrial strategy will favour on‑the‑ground testbeds: innovation districts, pilot plants, smart energy demonstrators. Surrey’s county and regional research base can be the nucleus for such facilities, attracting mission‑oriented industrial investors, mobilising knowledge transfer prizes and leveraging blended finance.

Challenges: As outlined above, risks remain. The greatest is likely to be funding and capacity mismatch. High vaunting expectations of universities to deliver ever more localized impact are rarely matched by sustained funding. As a county, as a region, and as a higher education ecosystem, Surrey will need to simultaneously reallocate resources and secure new income streams, through local place deals, fee‑for‑service contracts, or strategic philanthropic and public co‑investment, in order to fund everything from scale short courses, staff secondments and applied research.

Team Burnham is going to push hard on the need for universities to balance national research excellence with local responsiveness. But an intensified local delivery role also risks stretching institutional priorities. Surrey-based HEIs must preserve its commitments to research excellence while embedding applied translational work in incentive structures (promotion, workload allocation) so academics are rewarded for civic engagement and industry impact. Similarly, in tackling new demands on institutional capability and governance, engagement at scale requires new delivery units: programme management offices, business‑facing upskilling units, and a consolidated civic engagement unit capable of owning and delivering a civic strategy. Surrey will need nimble governance that enables rapid contracting, ethical commercialization, IP governance and transparent impact measurement.

From the perspective of local government, the greatest risk is both constitutional and political, namely uneven powers and policies, leading to poor implementation, stasis or even damage in the local fabric, and social backlash. Uneven devolution, fragmented application, with yet more political churn or poorly managed fiscal reconfigurations are sure to disrupt Surrey’s nascent multi‑year planning.

The key therefore is for the entire ‘Surrey ecoystem’: local decision-makers of all stripes, leads in both public and private sector, leaders in FE and HE, to work together on behalf of the anchor ‘sites’ to which they are connected, or represent. It’s clear that Burnham’s agenda can be transformational for civic universities. For the University of Surrey, success depends on converting rhetorical demand into durable institutional relationships, realistic financing models and scalable delivery platforms. With targeted investment in capability, an outward‑facing commercial curriculum, and clear governance for IP and partnerships, Surrey can translate No 10 North’s promise into tangible local prosperity, while safeguarding core academic missions.