Greenwich and Kent universities merger: What does this mean for multi-university trusts?

The UK’s first so-called “super-university” is to be formed with Greenwich and Kent universities set to merge, according to reports.  

Under the proposed name of London and South East University Group, it will have one vice-chancellor and bring together 28,000 undergraduate students from the academic year starting autumn 2026. 

This follows an idea floated by Universities UK, in its June report Towards a New Era of Collaboration, to develop innovative collaborative structures like “multi-university trusts”.  

Browne Jacobson’s higher education team can draw on the wider education practice’s extensive experience of establishing multi-academy trusts in schools, having supported more than 40% of all mergers and helped many of them develop from inception to large organisations. 

Nathalie Jacoby-Danesh, partner in the higher education team at Browne Jacobson, said: “Multi-university trusts (MUTs), or university groups, present an intriguing proposition for the higher education sector to achieve long-term financial sustainability where sufficient economies of scale can be realised. 

“However, we don’t expect a similar journey to the one taken in the schools sector, where academisation was driven by a dedicated government policy backed by funding. 

“Without a similar framework in the higher education sector, the success of a MUT depends on the merging universities having a very clear strategic rationale and business case, which is likely to include needing to realise sufficient economies of scale. 

“Some MATs are significant operations, with the largest now posting revenues in excess of half a billion pounds and comprising more than 90 schools. It’s likely that MUTs will feature far fewer institutions, given there are currently 429 providers registered with the Office for Students compared to 30,000 schools. 

“We’d expect to see no more than two to four institutions in a MUT, which would likely be developed on geographic grounds or because they share common or complementary approaches to teaching, research or sector specialisms.  

“There’s a wide range of legal models to consider, ranging from informal partnerships, contractual collaborations, shared services, joint ventures and full-blown mergers. 

“Clearly, structures should be enablers to a wider strategic vision. While MUTs will be a good route for some universities, they aren’t a silver bullet for transforming the financial health of higher education.”