Ex ministers warn UK universities will go bust without higher fees or funding

Vice-chancellors suggest fee rise of £2,000 to £3,500 a year, but others say that is ‘politically impossible’

Vice-chancellors and former ministers are warning that the cash crisis facing universities is so serious that the next government will have to urgently raise tuition fees or increase funding to avoid bankruptcies within two years. They said the state of university finances was more dire than revealed in last week’s report by the Office for Students, which forecast 40% of England’s universities would end this year in the red. Vice-chancellors said that increases of between £2,000 to £3,500 a year for each student would be needed to stabilise the sector. Two former universities ministers, the Conservative peer David Willetts and Labour’s Alan Johnson, plus the Labour peer Peter Mandelson, a former business secretary, all said there needed to be increased funding for universities as a matter of urgency. Another former higher education minister, the Labour MP Margaret Hodge, said raising fees was “politically impossible” but that the funding system needed to be made more progressive. The value of domestic tuition fees has fallen with inflation and universities are becoming increasingly reliant on overseas students who can be charged significantly more. Many in the sector fear Rishi Sunak will announce further measures to reduce international student numbers this week, to coincide with the publication of the latest UK immigration statistics on Wednesday. Neither the Conservatives nor Labour is likely to want to focus on the issue before an election, with the idea of raising student fees particularly difficult for the latter party as its leader, Keir Starmer, had promised in his leadership campaign to scrap tuition fees, before a U-turn on that pledge last year.

https://www.theguardian.com/education...

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