Forget the NHS for a minute – and look to Britain’s universities, another institution in urgent need of fixing. A number are on the brink of bankruptcy or closure. Revenues are plummeting. Rich foreign students are vanishing. Jobs for graduates are falling and mental illness among students has reportedly multiplied by seven times in the past decade. The result is that in 2023, 63,000 young people went straight from studying on to receipt of sickness benefit, a figure double the pre-pandemic level.
Almost every statistic is grim. According to the Office for Students, 40% of English universities are running unsustainable deficits. Shitij Kapur, vice-chancellor of King’s College London, has predicted that this will rise to 80%, while only fees of £12,500 (up from today’s £9,250, fixed in 2017) would start to correct the crisis. There is no way this is going to happen: government is now punishing universities for its past generosity, while the lifeboat of foreign student fees has been destroyed by new visa controls. Universities such as Huddersfield, York, Lancaster, Coventry and Kent report severe deficits.
More serious is the result of the Major government’s 1992 upgrading of 33 polytechnics, which gave many cities not one university, but two. It led to a downgrading of technical and vocational training in favour of academic learning, and was followed by Tony Blair’s ambition to get 50% of young people into university. There is no doubt this did wonders for many provincial towns, but it was an extravagant pledge….
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An Ode to the ‘Ad-Hoc’ Teachers of Ramjas English Department
After the truth-shower 