Stay calm: Experts are warning UK unis exactly how they should prepare for a war

Erm, so worrying about a World War Three are no longer just the stuff of conspiracy theorists and Reddit threads. Experts have warned that UK universities need to come up with a new strategy so they would be ready for an “inter-state” war.

This hasn’t come out of nowhere. Prime Minister Keir Starmer literally said the UK was “moving to warfighting readiness” in June. The government’s newest national security strategy said the country had to “actively prepare for the possibility of the UK coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario”. The new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) argues UK universities need a better strategy in preparation for wartime. It also outlines several ways UK unis could be expected to help during a war.

Wait, are UK universities unprepared for a World War Three?

Apparently, UK universities could be really helpful during an international war. But unis don’t have a “strategic framework” in place for if war did break out.

The report says: “The UK higher education system possesses a latent national asset for resilience and wartime readiness, but without strategic frameworks its capacity remains fragmented and reactive rather than prepared.”

“Policymakers must now act strategically to mobilise higher education institutions as assets of national security and democratic continuity,” it continues.

The UK doesn’t have any protocols for how universities and other higher education institutes would be involved in a national emergency. Unis aren’t usually included in civil contingency planning in the way that other public services are. HEPI argues that UK unis “must be explicitly and strategically integrated into UK resilience planning”. This would help the government to make use of unis during wartime.

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HEPI advises that the new policies should make sure UK unis stay “sites of open inquiry, civic pluralism, and democratic continuity” even during a war.

What are UK unis supposed to be ready to do during a war?

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
(Credit: John Bradley)

The report even lists severals ways the government could make use of UK universities during a war. Apparently unis are “bulwarks of truth and civic engagement”, and could prevent misinformation. Unis and colleges could retrain people for emergency roles. Post-1992 unis, which used to be polytechnics, would be especially useful for this, as these unis already teach more skills-based courses. The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is already part of a programme to deploy clinical staff during emergencies, such as outbreaks of chlolera.

Uni campuses could be used to shelter displaced people and distribute aid. Universities in Ukraine have been used for this.

The report draws attention to the University of Oxford‘s research into growing wheat. If a war disrupted supply chains, then research into food production would be extremely useful.