UK universities are under mounting financial pressure.

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 Governor of Leeds Beckett University
• Professor Baroness Alison Wolf DBE, Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London and cross-bench peer in the UK House of Lords
• Richard Salter, Director of Analytics, King’s College London
• Nick Hillman, Director, Higher Education Policy Institute