Universities UK's response to the Higher Education White Paper outlines the principles that we believe will underpin a strong future higher education system. These principles form the basis of the specific recommendations we make to government in taking forward a programme of change. They also form the backdrop to our own commitments, which include improving the availability of information, developing effective partnerships, enhancing quality assurance and monitoring the impact of the changes. The combination of UUK's recommendations and the commitments that we have made would help ensure that the Government and universities play their respective roles in supporting diverse forms of excellence, promoting social mobility and social inclusion, delivering a more flexible regulatory framework, and achieving greater efficiency. Our response also calls on the Government to make timely, clear and consistent data widely available, to help ensure that future policy interventions are both transparent and evidence based. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table and 5 footnotes.)