Britain’s universities minister has outlined a series of measures designed to make Britain “the best place in the world to do science,” including a proposal to create what he called “a new type of university” focused on science and technology and on graduate students. In a speech on Wednesday announcing the government’s intention to seek proposals for the creation of such institutions, which he said would receive no government financing and would be paid for through private investment, David Willetts, the minister, also said the government would aim to increase universities’ knowledge-transfer income by 10 percent over the next three years and would work toward more British universities being ranked among the top 100 in the world. In his speech, Mr. Willetts said that a major British city might seek to emulate New York City’s competition to create a new graduate-science complex.

In a statement in response to the speech, Wendy Piatt, the director general of the Russell Group, which represents Britain’s leading research-intensive universities, called elements of the proposals “interesting,” but said that “at a time of austerity, it is prudent to invest where research funds have the most impact: within our world-class research-intensive universities.”