The danger signals for the decline of your sector are sounded by British universities, due to financial problems.
In a meeting they held today, they stressed that the problems are aggravated by restrictions on passport visas for foreign students.
“We are at a turning point in the history of our universities,” warned Sally Mapstone, president of Universities UK (UUK), which represents the country’s 141 universities.
“We can let our internationally recognised and competitive higher education system sink into decline. Or we can act together and with government,” she added in her speech at the UUK conference in Reading, west London.
British universities have been warning for months about the state of their finances.
The finances
Its deficit is £1.7bn (€2bn) in education, Sally Mapstone said. Added to this is a £5bn (€5.9bn) deficit in research.
“While the exact circumstances of the funding problem vary, we are all feeling the effects of the crisis,” said Sally Mapstone.
“The long-term reduction in public funding has increased pressure on universities to provide world-class teaching and research with ever fewer resources,” he lamented, calling for “investment and support” from the government.
Industry officials have urged the government to increase the registration fee in line with inflation.
In 2017, the entry fee increased from £9,000 to £9,250 (€10,970) in England. It has since frozen.
King’s College London president Sittij Kapoor estimated today that this figure should now be between £12,000 and £13,000.
Universities have turned to international students who pay much more. However, the Conservative government of Rishi Sunak, which was in power until July, has taken measures regarding visas for these students. From January, these students will no longer be able, with certain exceptions, to bring their family members to Britain.
30,000 fewer applications in Q1 2024
As a result, there were 30,000 fewer student visa applications in the first quarter of 2024 than in 2023, according to the government.
In a video shown at the UK conference, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson admitted that universities faced “complex issues”.
“I cannot promise painless or immediate solutions, but I promise that these issues will be treated with the attention they deserve,” he stressed.