University set for huge cash boost
GOVERNMENT PLANNING TO INVEST ‘VERY LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY’ TO IMPROVE SKILLS IN THE NORTH
THE government is planning to plough ‘very large amounts of cash’ into Manchester University, it is understood, amid signs of tensions within Whitehall over how to boost skills in the north.
The M.E.N. understands Boris Johnson intends to put ‘significant’ investment into existing northern universities rather than creating a so-called ‘MIT for the north’ – a plan for a brand new science institute backed by northern powerhouse minister Jake Berry modelled on the world-leading Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.
Chief Number 10 adviser Dominic Cummings is said to be sceptical of that plan, having instead ordered civil servants to draw up plans for considerable cash investment into Manchester University and other existing northern institutions, in Manchester’s case a move likely to be particularly focused on maths and science. It is unclear how much money would come Manchester’s way, but the government had promised to double research and development funding nationally in the Tory manifesto – prompting city council leader Sir Richard Leese to call after the election for that to be more evenly spread and not just ‘swallowed up by Oxford, Cambridge and London.’
News that Number 10 may agree with that view follows reports over Christmas that Jake Berry, minister for the northern powerhouse, has been driving plans for a so-called ‘super-college’ in the north modelled on MIT in Boston.
He had told the Sunday Times that MIT provides a ‘significant boost’ to the regional economy in which it sits and that he hoped to see a similar ‘world leading institution in the north to rival Oxford and Cambridge.’
But in early signs of a power struggle within government over northern policy, Number 10 sources said that was not the view of Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief policy adviser.
He is said to be ‘deeply sceptical’ of the idea, arguing that a new institution would take years to establish.
Instead Cummings is said to have ordered plans to be drawn up for considerable investment into existing universities such as Manchester – which has already benefited from new institutions focused on graphene research under George Osborne’s original ‘northern powerhouse’ policy.
The focus on northern skills investment comes amid a growing clamour for a boost in that area in order to allow the region’s economy to punch its weight, a move also called for by the Power up the North campaign launched jointly by northern newspapers earlier this year.
It also comes as the Conservatives seek to cement their victories in northern seats – and as reports suggest Number 10 is looking to tighten its grip on government policy development in the new year.