Matthew Howling

Matthew is a specialist in banking and finance law, with a particular emphasis on the higher education sector. He advises lenders and borrowers on all aspects of debt finance. In recent years, Matthew has been at the forefront of advising not-for-profit entities on public bond issues, private placements and traditional bank facilities. He also heads-up the Mills & Reeve taskforce on university financial resilience.

Matthew has spoken and written widely on university financial sustainability for, among others, Universities UK (UUK), WonkHE and the Higher Education Policy Institute. He is a co-author of Radical Collaboration: A Playbook (July 2025) a report by Mills & Reeve and KPMG which explores innovative strategies for fostering collaboration within the higher education sector, aiming to help universities consider their options to collaborate more widely. This practical playbook was written in response to a request from UUK’s Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce to help institutions examine the types of structures that are available to them and the issues to consider if they are looking to change how they operate as a single entity and develop opportunities to save costs and transform operations through forms of collaboration.