Efforts to strengthen and promote the role of universities in the UK often ignore the European dimension, to their cost

Austerity and the impact agenda have led to a rise in campaign groups and think tanks in support of public universities and the social sciences in both the UK and Europe. Anne Corbett examines three recent efforts in this direction, finding a worrying level of insularity in the UK’s organisations. She writes that there is space for a Campaign for European Universities which could strengthen the impact of the bodies involved in academic research.