Future of Higher Education Issue 2026

Could university-FE mergers turn the UK higher education hierarchy upside down? 

Australia may be about to conduct an experiment that should be watched very carefully in the United Kingdom. University of Canberra vice-chancellor Bill Shorten is pushing for closer integration, potentially a merger, between his university and the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT), which would create Australia’s seventh dual-sector university. The idea has circulated in various forms for around 15 years, but Shorten argues that current circumstances make revisiting it increasingly compelling. The University of Canberra itself describes “tertiary harmonisation” as a strategic priority, intended to create more seamless pathways between vocational and higher education.