Britain’s secretary of state for innovation, universities, and skills said today that the government planned to conduct a wide-ranging review to produce a “10- to 15-year framework for the expansion and development of higher education” — a process that could call for “radical reform and change.”

Warning that “excellence today is no guarantee of excellence in 10 or 15 years’ time,” the official, John Denham, said in a speech before representatives of the higher-education sector that “plenty of other countries, developing and developed, will challenge our position.” Mr. Denham identified a range of areas that will be reviewed to explore how British universities can maintain their competitiveness.

The areas include intellectual property, the student experience, and the relationship between academe and policy makers. Drummond Bone, vice chancellor of the University of Liverpool and a former president of Universities UK, has been asked to review the “international dimension” of the challenges facing British universities. Universities UK, an umbrella group representing vice chancellors, and the National Union of Students both issued statements welcoming the review. —Aisha Labi