Where Do We Go from Here? The Future of E nglish Higher Education

A D elphi study has been carried out, soliciting views from higher education experts on likely and desirable developments in E nglish higher education until 2025. The paper reports the most salient findings of the D elphi questionnaire and presents two scenarios that focus largely on the institutional fabric of the system. The first scenario follows the general agreement emerging from the two rounds of the D elphi study and suggests a smaller higher education system and the return of a binary divide between about 25 research‐intensive universities and about 70 other higher education institutions. The second scenario is a counter‐scenario that intends to present an alternative picture of E nglish higher education in 2025. That scenario suggests a compact system of six research‐intensive universities, about 40 comprehensive institutions and five private providers. With respect to the steering of the system, a key difference between the two scenarios is that the former assumes a continuing role of market forces, whereas the latter is based on a much stronger role of the government.