Higher Education Transformation & Efficiency
- through UK Financial Benchmarking.
From institutional insight to national capability
Etio’s financial benchmarking is evolving to support the next phase of sector transformation – enhancing valuable institution-level insight to deliver a shared, standardised capability that can underpin national benchmarking for UK higher education.
HE Transformation & Efficiency – a new phase of change
UK higher education has reached a point where incremental efficiencies are no longer sufficient. The UUK Transformation & Efficiency agenda highlights the need for system level transformation: stronger insight into cost, performance and sustainability across the sector.
Etio’s financial benchmarking has already helped institutions understand their cost base and performance. However, it is clear that institution by institution benchmarking alone is no longer enough.
As such, Etio’s benchmarking approach is evolving – from a valuable institutional insight tool, into a new-generation benchmarking capability that supports consistent, comparable and decision ready benchmarking at national scale.
The pilot programme is the next step in this evolution, shaping an approach that meets today’s needs while laying the foundations for a future national financial benchmarking programme.
The new-generation benchmarking pilot
What the evolving approach delivers
A shared, trusted evidence base – built with the sector.
- Improve comparability through consistent definitions.
- Align outputs to live planning and reforecast cycles
- Deliver insight that is actionable for individual institutions and comparable at sector level.
- Create the foundations of a national benchmarking capability.
How the pilot benchmarking works
Low burden. High integrity. Designed for scale.
- Existing finance and payroll data submitted in standard formats
- Up to three submissions per year, aligned to planning cycles
- Secure transformation into a consistent benchmark model
- Outputs delivered in days, not months
Participants receive:
- An executive financial snapshot highlighting material cost and performance drivers
- An interactive benchmarking report for peer and comparator comparison
Pilot participation directly informs the development of the national model.
Why this works for institutions, and the sector...
Better, earlier financial decision making.
The evolved model shifts efficiency work from reactive cost control to proactive, forward-looking financial management.
It enables leaders to:
- Distinguish strategic cost variation from inefficiency
- Identify emerging pressures earlier
- Test assumptions about productivity and sustainability
Stronger leadership, governance and dialogue
Senior teams and governing bodies need external context to navigate complexity.
- Shared, sector relevant evidence for executive teams
- Clear reference points for boards
- A common financial language across the sector
Understanding sustainability across core activity
Benchmarking supports clearer insight into:
- Cost and subsidy of research activity
- Professional services cost relative to students and income
- Productivity and resourcing across shared functions
This informs more sustainable operating models.
Foundations for national benchmarking and collaboration
A national, standardised benchmarking capability:
- Enables statistically meaningful comparison
- Supports evidence-informed collaboration
- Creates credible evidence for policy and funding discussions
The pilot phase is essential to shaping a model that works for institutions and for the system as a whole.
We are inviting expressions of interest from UK institutions to participate in the 2026 pilot programme.
Upon your expression of interest, we will provide you with the detail behind the planned cohorts - timings, benchmarking cycles, outputs, and how your participation will help further shape the new model. (Expression of interest in no way obligates your institution.)