It’s National Apprenticeship Week. Today on the HEPI blog, you can read about how University Alliance members are using healthcare degree apprenticeships to address workforce shortages: click here to read.
Or carry on reading to hear from Viggo Stacey at QS about how the researchers at Swansea University are solving contemporary problems like potholes with cutting-edge research.
- By Viggo Stacey, International Education & Policy Writer at QS Quacquarelli Symonds.
Drivers in England and Wales encounter an average of six potholes per mile, and damage sustained from them cost drivers an average of £460 in 2024. One estimate put the cost of potholes to the UK economy at £14bn last year.
Research published last week by Swansea University provides a real solution to this critical problem. Adding plant spores to bitumen will create a self-healing road surface that can extend its lifespan by 30%.
This speaks directly to the Secretary of State for Education’s five key priorities for reform of the higher education system – that universities should play a great civic role in their communities.
Local communities and businesses need to benefit fully from the work of higher education institutions, Bridget Phillipson wrote to the sector in November last year and as Debbie McVitty recently covered over at Wonkhe. This research will help individual drivers, councils across the country and UK industry.
But another thing that is so exciting about this discovery is where it came from. Swansea University, on the south coast of Wales and an institution whose Vice Chancellor in the last week has said higher education in Wales is facing ‘the toughest [financial] position that we’ve been in’, is showing what its academics are capable of, given the right resources.
And that leads to the second place where this research originated.
One of those involved is Dr Jose Norambuena-Contreras, a Senior Lecturer in Swansea’s Department of Civil Engineering, originally from Chile, while Dr Francisco Martin-Martinez is a Lecturer at King’s College London’s Chemistry Department who hails from Spain.
It is also notable that this news came out on the day that Keir Starmer became the first UK prime minister to join a gathering with EU leaders since Brexit.
While rejoining the EU’s single market is firmly off the cards, a deal on youth mobility is an obvious open goal. Some 57% of voters recently backed a scheme for the under 30s, in addition to polling last year finding 58% thinking a scheme is a good idea.
The UK Science and Tech Secretary, Peter Kyle, rightly met with EU counterparts in January to push to turbo-charge UK-EU science and technology links in a bid to tackle shared global challenges.
Potholes in the UK might just be a small part of the UK’s challenge. But as Norambuena-Contreras puts it, it’s a ‘very sexy topic’ that British people like to talk about. If researchers can continue to identify problem areas that resonate with local communities and industry, they’ll be on to a winner.
International talent is, and will continue to be, key to solving crises across the UK. If only researchers at the country’s top business schools were empowered to find solutions to filling higher education’s financial gaps in the same way as others can for potholes.
Jessica Turner, CEO at QS Quacquarelli Symonds, commented:
The UK’s universities are not just centres of learning—they are engines of economic transformation and real-world problem-solving.
Research from the University of Bristol released this week – showing that it contributed £1.13 billion to the West of England economy in 2022/23 – is just one example of that.
Swansea University’s ground-fixing research is a perfect example of how higher education drives innovation with tangible benefits for communities, industries, and the economy,” Turner added.
As the QS World Future Skills Index highlights, the UK is a global leader in academic readiness and future workforce skills. To sustain this momentum, continued investment in universities is essential—not just to address today’s challenges but to shape the solutions of tomorrow.