As Britain's Ocean City, Plymouth has many strengths, including its main university’s world-leading expertise in marine science, maritime technology and environmental research. We are the South West’s leading provider of health education, and home to the National Centre for Marine Autonomy – key to the nation’s defence – as well as growing strengths in digital technologies, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy.

These strengths put us at the heart of many of the opportunities that will shape the future economy.

But Plymouth's challenges are different from those of the great metropolitan conurbations. We are not South Yorkshire, Birmingham or London. Ours is the largest city south west of Bristol, at the heart of a predominately rural peninsula, connected to coastal communities, market towns, and pretty-but-isolated villages that have all too often felt distant from national growth.

Our success cannot be measured solely by what happens within the boundaries of our home city. Just as PL post codes stretch onto Dartmoor and across the Tamar into Cornwall, our impact transcends local government boundaries – however they are reorganised – and our reach must be judged by whether we’re providing and shaping opportunity in places with post codes beginning with TQ, TR, EX, TA and more.

The University of Plymouth creates knowledge and skills through research, innovation and education. But that’s not enough. We must also transform lives by creating growth and helping convert opportunity into outcomes.

Our ambition has always been for growth in every community across South West England, and that’s something you can see reflected in our work, over and above our key position in Plymouth – notably as a Team Plymouth partner – and our significant presence in the region’s smaller cities of Truro and Exeter. Our longstanding, award-winning network of partner further education colleges across the region is something we are re-investing in, plus we manage three Innovation Centres in Cornwall, on behalf of local authority partners.

This kind of inclusive growth does not happen by accident. It requires collaboration between schools, colleges, employers, local government, communities, and universities. It requires institutions and leaders who are prepared to work together around shared goals.

The University of Plymouth cannot create those pathways alone, but we can and do help connect them. And we are not alone in doing this – something that I hope is not lost on our reshaped Government when they consider the challenges facing the higher education sector. Because it may not always feel like it but there are opportunities, too.

It’s impossible to argue with the idea that ‘the university route’ is the only one, post-18; I’m not sure anyone ever thought it was. But there’s more to universities than that, and the good news is that what’s happened in Manchester over recent years suggests Prime Minister Burnham knows this very well.

Which brings me back to my conversations with a taxi driver and a Vice-Chancellor. What connected them was one simple observation: when universities thrive, places gain confidence in their future.

While my university’s home city may not be Manchester, the places share a certain grit, friendliness and resilience in our approaches to the world, and there is certainly a platform to build on here that – with some flexibility, creativity, and a uniquely Plymothian flavour – can do ‘Manchesterism’ and deliver exactly the kind of hope our new Prime Minister and his Government want to see.

I’m sure other universities can make similar offers, and I hope we’re all given the opportunity to do so.