Margaret Hodge: universities must address their shortcomings

Universities need to “get their house in order” on issues such as vice-chancellor pay if they are to successfully convince the wider public of their value, according to a former head of the Commons public accounts committee.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge (pictured), who since November 2018 has been chair of council at Royal Holloway, University of London, said that higher education needed to “go on the attack” following a “consistent attack on the sector” in the media, but that it would need to address its shortcomings in order to do so.

“[Universities need to] ensure that our value to the UK is universally acknowledged and accepted,” Hodge told the Higher Education Policy Institute’s annual conference in London on 13 June. “We already see in the media attempts to undermine that.”