I am writing this while sitting in a hotel room in Newcastle.  I arrived a few minutes ago, just after 10 p.m., and am here to spend most of tomorrow acting as the external advisor on an interview panel at the University of Newcastle where they are seeking to appoint a new PVC for Learning, Teaching and Student Experience (their local title for the role).  Earlier on today I spent over an hour in a three-way meeting with Michael Arthur and Wendy Piatt.  Michael is VC at Leeds but also chair of the Russell Group, whilst Wendy is the chief executive of the group.  I took over a couple of months ago as the convenor of the Russell Group's network of PVCs for learning and teaching, so I was trying to speak for all 20 universities in the Group.

At a time when many people are expecting a new spirit of competition between universities, it may seem strange that we actually co-operate very considerably.  Last week I spent nearly 24 hours chairing the Higher Education Academy's PVC / DVC network at a meeting in London.  That was attended by around 45 PVCs from all round Britain, and our guest speaker at dinner was Sir Alan Langlands, Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England.  Much of the talk at the meeting, particularly the 'bar' and 'coffee' talk, was about common issues we are all facing.

The fact is that around the sector there is actually more co-operation than competition.  Particular at the present time, we can only approach an understanding of the complex new post-Browne and post-CSR worlds if we can recognise the possible effects on the higher education sector as a whole, and on different institutions in different parts of the sector.  Political processes will in some cases be driven by local considerations, and a variety of lobby groups could also have specific effects.  As the VC has said in an article in the Times Higher and in various other communications, the sector actually needs to stand together - the proposed changes in funding are a threat to the whole of English high education and not just to individual institutions.

We can learn a lot from talking to each other about how we are tackling common issues such as widening participation, the provision of high quality teaching accommodation, responses to the removal of teaching funding from Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences subjects, and views on new regulatory burdens that are likely to be introduced in the next few months.  I am sure I will return from Newcastle after tomorrow with new ideas on various issues. The only problem then in my very crowded diary will be finding the time to jot them down and start actioning any of them!