Senior university leaders have been holding secret talks with Reform UK figures to prepare for a ‘Trump-style’ overhaul of the sector if the party wins power, Cambridge’s vice-chancellor has told colleagues.

According to a leaked recording obtained by Varsity and The Sunday Times, at Monday’s meeting of Cambridge’s University Council – the University’s policy-making body of college heads, senior academics and student representatives – Deborah Prentice said Russell Group vice-chancellors had begun private discussions with the party.

Prentice, formerly Provost of Princeton University, told the council: “A number of you… have wanted to be talking about the possible implications of a Reform government for the University of Cambridge, and that is something that the sector is now beginning to take up as an issue. And so, people, for example, Russell Group Vice Chancellors, have been meeting with key people from Reform, and we’ve had people, in addition, who have been part of conversations with key members, key people from Reform.”

She added that discussions were taking place now because “what we have heard is if Reform is elected, there will not be [inaudible, but think ‘then new’] consultations. They’ve made it very, very clear that any consultations are happening now.”

Prentice asked council members how they wanted such conversations to “feed into the Council,” suggesting a dedicated session at the governing body’s March away day to consider “what we know, the information that we’re getting about what Reform, the pillars of a Reform government, would mean for higher education”.

“The very, very, very short headline on Reform is that what they seem to want to do is differentiate in the sector between the high-quality providers and low-quality providers. That will be challenging in a variety of ways, and exactly what that will mean, and exactly the basis on which that distinction will be made – I mean, obviously, we will end up in the high-quality providers, but dividing the sector in that way will be very challenging for us.”

It is unclear which Reform figures have spoken to executives at Cambridge or other members of the Russell Group – the two-dozen top research universities – or in what context. The party has five MPs but no education spokesman.

Cambridge declined to respond, but a source there stressed that any outreach had been informal. The source also noted that political figures routinely visited the university and that discussions about current affairs took place with all political parties

In response to a question about whether Reform might model its approach on the US, she replied: “and they’ve made very clear about that… and it’s very interesting that is a large part of the [inaudible, could say problem or programme].”

She said Reform had even floated the abolition of the higher-education regulator, telling the council: “One of the things that they [Reform] talked about, apparently, to the Russell Group vice-chancellors is that, you know, they’d like to get rid of the OfS [Office for Students] – the crowd had to suppress some cheer” [laughter erupted].

“But what the US example reminds you is you have to worry about what’s coming next, right, there should be no cheer.”

This also follows concerns raised by Cambridge’s new Chancellor, Lord Chris Smith, during his campaign for the role in June. Smith, who became Chancellor a month later, replacing Lord Salisbury, warned then that a Reform government could have serious implications for the sector.

Asked at the time about the prospect of “Trump-style recriminations”, Smith said: “I worry if Reform does get into a position of authority or power, we may see the same phenomenon happen here in the UK.”

He added: “We just don’t know what a Reform government would be like. But the runes are not terribly good and some of the attitude that they strike, some of the friendships they make around the world, they don’t fill me with optimism.

“Populism is always driven by a wish to kick the elites, and universities are, by definition, representatives of an intellectual elite”.

In his second presidency, Trump has launched a full-scale confrontation with US universities, freezing billions of dollars in federal research funding and moving to deport foreign students.

Harvard University has become a particular target, attacked over allegations of “antisemitism” on campus, with the administration revoking roughly $2bn (£1.5bn) in research grants and seeking to restrict international scholars.

Other Ivy Leagues, including Columbia, Penn and Brown, have struck deals with the administration to preserve threatened funding, rather than pursue legal challenges. A federal court ruled in September that the attempt to strip Harvard of its funding had been unlawful.

Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage – who has a long-standing relationship with Trump – has been leading national polls consistently since April. Its 2024 general election manifesto claimed that “divisive, ‘woke’ ideology” had “captured our public institutions” and pledged to “cut funding to universities that undermine free speech”, warning that “political bias or cancel culture must face heavy financial penalties”.

The party also promised to stop charging interest on student loans, prevent international students from bringing family members to the UK, require universities to offer two-year degrees, and restrict the number allowed to remain after graduation.

Farage has repeatedly accused universities of harbouring “huge left-wing bias”, saying in 2019 that “young people’s minds” were “being poisoned against the idea of the existence of nation states, against the idea of sensible border controls”. Last year he said “many” institutions were “absolutely drunk on foreign money” and that he wanted to “slash the numbers” of overseas students.

In June, The Times reported that Cambridge was seeking to take advantage of Trump’s confrontations with US elite universities by courting top American academics and had begun early conversations with several prospective recruits.

Meanwhile, in October, James Orr, Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge, was appointed a senior adviser to Farage. In response, Green Party Leader Zack Polanski said: “Reform UK’s decision to welcome James Orr as a senior adviser to Nigel Farage is further evidence that Farage is embracing dangerous and divisive right-wing ideology.”