The head of the universities watchdog in England has said the “golden age of higher education” could be over and all options should be on the table as the funding crisis facing the sector is “significant”.
The Office for Students (OFS) interim chair, Sir David Behan, said increased tuition fees and lifting visa restrictions on international students could help revive embattled institutions.
“I think the resilience of the sector overall has been tested by a number of different forces … the global pandemic, the impact of leaving the European Union,” he told the Sunday Times.
“We’ve had industrial action, the cost of living crisis, the increasing cost of pensions and decreasing number of international students, and then, finally, domestic undergraduate fees remaining frozen since 2012 … and what it’s meant is that the fiscal deficit for some organisations is significant.”
He called on universities to explore mergers or partnership arrangements with other institutions, amid fears some institutions could be facing bankruptcy. “It’s important that universities revise their medium-term financial strategies … They can’t just carry on,” he said.
The value of higher education comes from things like higher taxes and lower crime.
Trying to run a university like a business is fucking stupid.
Universities could cost the government a shit load of money for all I care. But losing British education in the name of foreign money is the exact case of short term thinking that has made this country as crap as it is.
If you want to think of some 50 year plan. It should be about educating more British students to do roles that are required. Not about bringing in foreign students to make a short term buck.