Imperial refuses to disclose cost of McKinsey appointment
The American consultancy was tasked in late 2024 with a “maturity assessment” of the new programmes in the College’s strategy.
Imperial College has refused to disclose the cost of the appointment of McKinsey & Co, a major strategy and management consulting firm, for its work on the university’s “Science for Humanity” strategy. The College cited potential prejudice to “the university’s and the company’s commercial interests” to justify an exemption to Felix’s Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
In its November 2024 meeting, the College Council – Imperial’s main governing body consisting of senior management, department heads, and Union representatives – decided to appoint McKinsey “to conduct a maturity assessment to evaluate the maturity of each element of the strategy programme”.
The Science for Humanity Strategy, which was launched in March 2024 and seeks to maximise the College’s potential “as a force for good in the world,” sets out Imperial’s ambitions in terms of global reach, interdisciplinary research, entrepreneurship, and future focus. Specific programmes introduced in the strategy include the four “Schools of Convergence Science”, each of which aims to integrate the College’s research on a key cross-disciplinary issue, such as “health and technology”.
Imperial has not explicitly released any of McKinsey’s “actionable recommendations”, which is not unusual for internal reports. However, Felix understands that the “Key points” recorded in Council minutes from a February 2025 meeting, which summarise the discussion held by Council members on strategy implementation, reflect on the McKinsey assessment. These include a phased rollout of the programmes to “prioritise readiness”, and the need to engage in early external funding discussions for the Schools of Convergence Science.
McKinsey declined to comment on the appointment, saying: “We do not comment on client work or client relationships.”
Imperial refused to provide the “disclosure of the total cost for the appointment of McKinsey & Company” sought by Felix’s FOI request and its subsequent appeal, citing section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which provides an exemption to the disclosure of information that could “prejudice the commercial interests of any person.”
“Imperial’s position is that disclosure of the cost would prejudice the university’s commercial interests in that it would be likely to damage Imperial’s position in future negotiations with suppliers for this type of service,” Imperial said. “We did seek the views of the supplier who has confirmed that their commercial interests would be prejudiced by disclosure of the information requested.”
“The request asked simply for the cost of the service; it would not be possible to draw any conclusions about Imperial’s decision-making in this matter or whether the decision was financially sound from that information,” Imperial said, explaining that “[d]isclosure would not reveal the scale of consultancy spending at Imperial.”
Mr Tunde Olanrewaju, an independent Imperial College Council member who served as Managing Partner for the UK, Ireland and Israel at McKinsey at the time, declared a potential conflict of interest in the Council’s November 2024 meeting, noting that “his firm has been engaged to advise on the implementation of the strategy.” Mr Olanrewaju, who joined the Council in October 2024, has since been appointed as McKinsey’s Managing Partner for Europe.
A former Senior Partner at McKinsey also sits on the College Council, but left the consulting firm before its appointment by Imperial, and was not required to declare interest.
An Imperial College London spokesperson said: “A comprehensive declaration of interests is made by all Council members, and key associations with external organisations are also declared publicly on our Council pages.” Felix understands that all council members have fully complied with Imperial’s declaration of interest policies.
Universities have often been reluctant to disclose the costs of specific consultancy hires. In 2024, Imperial disclosed the total cost of its “brand refresh,” which included the infamous logo redesign, following a wave of FOI requests. However, that cost was not linked to a singular contractor.
