Collaboration and competition in England’s tertiary education: an integrative review of three decades of research

The need for greater collaboration within England’s competitive tertiary education sector has become a central concern in recent policy debates. Drawing on an integrative review of 122 publications spanning the past three decades, this article examines how collaboration has been conceptualised and problematised within the country’s quasi-marketised tertiary education landscape. Four principal forms of collaboration were discussed: those between tertiary education and industry; between higher and further education; between tertiary education and the public sector; and between tertiary education and communities. Marketisation and competition are consistently identified as significant barriers to collaboration. The review also highlights three key enablers for collaboration: shared principles; flexible and bottom-up approaches; and more inclusive collaboration models. The article concludes by arguing for the re-centring of the common good as a shared guiding principle and for adopting an ecosystem perspective on tertiary education, which foregrounds interdependence among diverse stakeholders.