CMA guidance supports greater collaboration between universities

As the UK’s HE sector undergoes increasing pressure to innovate and explore spin-outs and potential partnerships with other universities and third‑party funders, the CMA’s new guidance aims to give institutions a practical framework for self‑assessing compliance with UK competition rules and to reduce uncertainly about competition law risk that could be discouraging providers from pursuing legitimate collaboration initiatives.

The high-level guidance, published on 22 January, follows a blog post published in May 2025 where the CMA acknowledged the fundamental role that both greater collaboration and the authority itself have to play in supporting UK universities weather the challenging financial headwinds facing the HE sector.

The guidance outlines how HE providers across the UK can collaborate better while still complying with competition law. It lists both a range of formal and informal types of collaboration that may be relevant to HE providers and indicates the likely associated level of competition law risk.

In particular, the CMA notes that both informal collaborations among HE providers that facilitate student and staff movement from one provider to another – such as in the event a course is closed – and joint engagement with policy makers are unlikely to raise competition law concerns.  Reflecting general competition law principles, the guidance also states that collaborations between organisations that are not actual or potential competitors – including organisations operating outside the HE sector – are less likely to pose competition law concerns.

In the context of information exchange, whether direct or indirect, the guidance makes it clear that it is generally acceptable for providers to share genuinely public information or anonymised and sufficiently aggregated benchmarking data, particularly if the data is handled by an independent third party and is ring-fenced from HE providers. However, it cautions that sharing “competitively sensitive” information, such as current or forward‑looking provider‑specific strategic information, is likely to be high risk. The CMA also cross-references its more detailed competition law guidance on information exchange, including horizontal agreements and benchmarking in labour markets.

Commenting on the new guidance, Giles Warrington, a competition law expert at Pinsent Masons said: “Last year the CMA recognised that greater collaboration between universities can help support the HE sector which is facing challenging financial situations, and noted in its 2024-25 annual report that it was ‘working with government and the higher education sector to understand concerns which may be preventing providers from working together in ways that could support research and innovation, and equip people with critical skills’.”

Warrington said the new guidance builds on the  CMA’s work in this area and that the authority’s ongoing willingness to engage with HE providers is reminiscent of its ‘open door’ policy for environmental sustainability agreements, where the CMA has also provided guidance amid concerns that businesses were deterred from collaborating on green initiatives due to competition law concerns.

In relation to formal partnerships between HE providers, the CMA’s guidance recognises that joint ventures and contractual alliances can “bring many benefits, such as achieving efficiencies when buying goods and services, and opening up new opportunities for collaboration through shared services and infrastructure.”

The CMA notes that joint purchasing of goods and services, and sharing back‑office functions and physical infrastructure, are unlikely to raise competition law concerns. However, it says that whilst collaboration between HE providers on course provision remains possible, it will require careful fact‑specific assessment to gauge competition law risk, particularly if this could adversely impact student choices.

The guidance states that exploratory discussions between HE providers about potential mergers or group integrations are generally legitimate and, where mergers do proceed, parties may be subject to UK merger control rules on which the CMA has published separate guidance. 

The guidance also references other CMA guidance that may be relevant to HE providers, including further competition law guidance relating to research and development (R&D) agreements, and consumer law guidance for the HE sector and more widely – which parties must also be aware of given the CMA’s strengthened direct enforcement consumer law powers that apply from April 2025 and mirror the CMA’s competition law enforcement powers.

Notably, the CMA states that it “may be able to step in if HE providers are being put off collaborating in ways that may be beneficial to students or the wider economy because of uncertainty about how competition law applies”. It invites HE providers to get in touch if they continue to have questions about how competition law applies to their contemplated collaboration despite having already carried out a self-assessment.

Angelique Bret, a competition and consumer law expert at Pinsent Masons, said the guidance signals that collaboration is feasible and even desirable in certain circumstances, but stressed that HE providers must always take care to comply with the law. “Governing bodies and executive teams should define and document the objective of any proposed collaboration, the expected benefits and why unilateral action would not deliver the same benefits as collaboration,” she said. “This will ensure that any restriction of competition is necessary and proportionate to those benefits and that appropriate information‑sharing protocols are implemented to safeguard against the sharing of competitively sensitive information.”

The new guidance also forms part of the CMA’s wider focus on supporting pro-growth business collaboration across key industry sectors, in line with its 2026-29 strategy, and aligns with the government’s emphasis on driving economic growth and attracting investment in the UK.  Warrington noted that in its 2026-27 draft annual plan, which is currently under consultation, the CMA states it is “interested in hearing from sectors where there is concrete evidence that competition law concerns are chilling beneficial collaborations, and where we might be able to help”.