Why the HE sector should embrace automation to cut costs
UK universities are facing an unprecedented financial squeeze. Years of frozen (or near-static) tuition fees, rising operating costs and a drop in international recruitment due to visa restrictions have seen many institutions teeter on the brink of bankruptcy.
An uncertain funding pipeline isn’t the only challenge HE providers need to overcome. The demographic window that boosted undergraduate recruitment for much of the last two decades is closing; England’s population of 18-year-olds is set to decline sharply after 2030. This will further reduce the pool of traditional undergraduate applicants, and force universities to be smarter about how they recruit and retain students.
In an uncertain landscape, institutions must adapt to survive
To say that the sector is under pressure to cut costs would be an understatement. The Office for Students reports that 40% of universities are running deficits, and half will be in deficit next year.
In this climate, it’s unsurprising that providers are looking for innovative ways to reduce spend. The news that Kent and Greenwich are merging to create the UK’s first ‘super-university’ is a sign of the times. The status quo is no longer going to cut it for all but the most prestigious institutions.
These intersecting factors have already driven a wave of restructures and redundancies. But there is another solution that universities can adopt in order to cut costs and boost productivity: process automation.
Using digital solutions to tackle institutional problems
Universities are sprawling organisations made up of dozens of faculties, professional services teams and legacy systems. That complexity often translates into friction for staff and frustration for students.
But the right tools can have transformative effects within organisations that would otherwise struggle to scale up at pace and under budget. Low-code automation and AI-assisted workflows can deliver measurable efficiency gains, and help universities to protect core, student-facing activity.
How does this look in practice? An automated system could shrink the endless email triage that creates bottlenecks, routing queries to the right team or generating automated, personalised replies for straightforward enquiries. Approval workflows can make low-risk decisions faster, replacing time-consuming committee cycles for routine matters and freeing senior staff to focus on strategic issues.
Relatively small-scale configurations can have a big impact. Many institutions already hold a Microsoft 365 Enterprise license environments and have access to integrated AI automation tools like Power Automate and Co-Pilot. By using the university’s existing knowledge base and policies, these tools can automate repetitive tasks, deal with frontline enquiries and signpost students to relevant information. Crucially, this can be delivered without the costs and timelines associated with large custom software projects.
Human change is needed to implement digital solutions
HEI’s have, broadly speaking, not yet capitalised on the tools available to them. Some of this can be attributed to the limitations of creaking legacy systems, but some is cultural.
IT teams can be cautious for sound reasons: integration headaches, data protection and security risks are real concerns. Staff across the sector are also suffering ‘change fatigue’ after years of restructures and policy churn, and capability gaps in low-code development or AI literacy can slow rollout. There is often, understandably, a resistance to some automated models after years of combatting the very real problem of students replacing critical thought with generative AI.
The adoption of automation within university settings is not always seamless – but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen. Our recent work with the University of Reading and Oxford Brookes University highlights the importance of strategic mapping, targeted solutions, and an integrated roll-out that – crucially – keeps staff on side. Visible, targeted pilots with clear ROI build trust, while short training programmes can help scale capability without large external contracts.
Future-proofing through process automation
University leaders have been forced to navigate a perfect storm of financial and demographic pressures. There are no easy answers to the problems facing the HEI sector. However, process automation offers concrete, measurable ways to cut costs and protect core student-facing activity.
The wider impact of automation on the HE landscape is strategic as well as financial. On the one hand, automation is one practical route to reduce spend: it lets institutions deliver the same (or better) services with fewer hours spent on routine tasks.
On the other hand, there is a competitive dimension. Universities that harness automation to streamline operations and improve student experience will be better placed to compete internationally, while those that delay risk being outpaced by peers who have already embedded digital operating models.
When margins are squeezed, making processes more efficient goes from optimal to critical. Process automation alone won’t solve funding shortfalls, but it can act as an effective, low-cost lever to free up capacity for mission-critical work.
Dave Hitchen, Senior Consultant at Think
