Higher Education Strategic Risk Analysis Report 2025/26 6 Audit committees should ensure that they have sufficient visibility and understanding of people related risks, the condition and usage of the university estate, research capabilities and priorities, and the composition of their student community. Members should familiarise themselves with employees’ concerns and with students’ living, study and working experiences. Committees should be clear where and how risks in these areas are captured within institutional risk management frameworks, and how assurance is provided. Further detail is provided in sections 1 and 2 of the report. How universities think about strategic risk To complement this review, we’ve taken a deep dive into the design and use of strategic risk registers, and how they’re used by audit committees and governing bodies as part of enterprise-wide risk management. This highlights opportunities for enhancement and sharing of good practice, including: • More frequent and in-depth discussion about strategic risks and interconnections between risks, in the context of organisational strategy; • Ensuring that governors understand underpinning risks factors and have visibility of both existing and planned controls; • Having an agreed and regularly reviewed statement on acceptable risk appetite, and using this proactively; • Ensuring appropriate governance oversight of legal and regulatory risks; • Making better use of data, KPIs and leading indicators to evidence the proximity of risks and evidence assurance; and • Developing risk and assurance frameworks. Further detail is provided in section 3 of the report. We hope the analysis will provide a useful input to this work and in supporting institutions in applying the updated HE Governance Code when it is released. Placing higher education risks in a wider context Alongside our strategic risk analysis report, we’re publishing our companion report which examines and contrasts the UK higher education sector’s perspective on strategic risks with that of a wide swathe of European businesses. This draws upon the insight from the 2026 European Confederation of Institutes of Internal Auditing (ECIIA) survey and also the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report (2026). Once again, this highlights growing risks from AI and technology developments, disruption from worldwide macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, and highlights growing risks to business continuity. This points to an ever more volatile and uncertain operating environment for universities, particularly those with a high dependency on income from international students and overseas campuses and partnerships. Institutions with more data-led and risk-informed strategic decision-making are more likely to be able to develop their resilience and respond rapidly and effectively to changing circumstances.
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