Reform UK’s differing approaches to higher education in its Welsh and Scottish election manifestos appear to be at odds with its leaders’ attitudes to universities more broadly – but the documents could give an insight into the party’s future policy direction, according to analysts.

The right-wing party has published its plans for higher education if it were to form a government in Wales or Scotland after May’s elections, but the policies in each nation strike a relatively different tone. 

In Scotland, the party’s 17-page manifesto is brief on higher education, promising to redirect school-leavers away from universities and into “trades via technical colleges”. 

It also says Reform will undertake a review of university funding “to ensure degrees are meaningful, value-for-money and grounded in genuine academic merit rather than EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] or sustainability metrics”. 

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Meanwhile, in Wales, the party acknowledges that universities “educate a highly skilled workforce, support regional economies, engage with business, attract international talent, and carry out research that addresses major economic and societal challenges”. 

The Welsh manifesto is “vague” but the “tone is positive about the role of universities to the Welsh economy and Welsh young people”, said Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. 

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“I’m a little bit suspicious of it because it doesn’t have any numbers attached to it, like how would you pay for some of this stuff? And secondly, I’m not convinced that many people in Welsh universities – staff or students – will necessarily take it at face value.”

The document’s positive approach to universities is somewhat at odds with rhetoric from party leaders. In February, deputy leader Richard Tice suggested Bangor University should have its funding removed after a student society declined to invite Reform politicians to speak to their members. 

Jonathan Simons, director of education at Public First, said there were some points that would never appear in a Westminster manifesto, such as the promise to recognise universities as “central to Wales’ economic future”.

In Wales, he said, it must be felt “that they can’t attack this generator of wealth or this generator of innovation in a way that they can in England”. 

“This must be coming through in their polling [and] focus group work.”

Hillman added that the Scottish manifesto may be limited in comparison with the Welsh one owing to a general lack of debate around higher education policies. 

“It seems that, in Scotland, everybody’s too scared of the SNP [Scottish National Party] to come up with much in the way of a higher education policy at all,” he said. “They think the SNP policy of free tuition fees is wildly popular, and therefore no one else is willing to really debate it.

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“They all sort of seem to think a review will solve the day, whereas in Wales the conversation is a bit more open.”

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Simons suggested some of the areas referenced in Reform’s manifestos may make it into a UK-wide policy, including supporting free speech on campuses and the need to prioritise vocational education. 

Both documents also commit to a review of higher education funding – something that is already under way in Scotland. Simons said the party may also consider something similar for English universities when working on its pledges for the next general election. 

“It allows them a bit of wiggle room to try and do what they’re essentially going to try and do anyway, which is take money out of HE, put it into FE, close down aspects of research and teaching and probably institutions that they don’t like,” he said. 

Overall, he added, the seemingly inconsistent approaches to higher education policy in Wales and Scotland may reflect the party’s “lack of a central policy architecture”. 

Nonetheless, university leaders should “100 per cent be paying attention to it because it is the longest set of on record statements” that Reform has made about higher education, he continued. 

Despite the appointment of ex-Conservative MP Suella Braverman as the party’s higher education spokesperson, little has been said about the party’s policy direction when it comes to universities. 

But Hillman suggested the manifestos may have a limited influence on Reform’s future approach to higher education policy. 

“I don’t want to suggest these documents don’t matter, but they have to be contextualised alongside what Reform are saying in England and alongside the fact that when they wrote these manifestos, particularly the Scottish one, they knew their chances of being in government were slim.” 

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helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com