Vice-chancellors across the UK have signaled that they may need to reduce hardship support for impoverished students and scale back outreach activities aimed at disadvantaged groups if the dire financial situation facing universities continues. The anonymous poll conducted by Universities UK (UUK) reveals the extent of the budgetary crisis in higher education, with more than two-thirds of leaders prepared to implement compulsory staff redundancies if difficulties persist over the next three years. Nearly 90% of respondents said they are considering hiring freezes or voluntary redundancies.
Funding Crisis Threatens Student Support
Vivienne Stern, chief executive of UUK, emphasized the need for a serious conversation about degree funding. “If we want to retain world-class universities that deliver for students, employers and the economy, a serious conversation is needed about how degrees are funded and whether the governments’ share matches the value universities deliver for society,” she said. However, experts warn that cutting support for students at a time when record numbers are living at home and working part-time to cope with rising prices could make higher education inaccessible for those who most need it.
Nearly a third of vice-chancellors said they would cut hardship funding for current students if necessary, while more than half indicated they are prepared to reduce access and outreach activities aimed at encouraging students to attend university over the next three years. These cuts could have severe consequences for the most vulnerable students.
Impact on Social Mobility
Lee Elliot-Major, a professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, warned that retreating from access and hardship funding risks pulling up the ladder on a whole generation. “It would represent a huge waste of human potential at precisely the moment the country can least afford it. We’re in real danger of returning to an era in which university once again becomes the preserve of those advantaged enough to afford it,” he said.
Katy Hampshire, director of programmes at the Sutton Trust, highlighted that cutting hardship funds could dramatically affect the lives of the poorest students. “They’re more likely to have skipped meals to save on food costs, and missed lectures or deadlines to undertake paid work. They also graduate with the highest levels of student debt compared to their more affluent peers. This is fundamentally unfair. Cutting hardship support would hit those with the least financial support hardest, and risk undermining their ability to succeed once they reach university,” she said. Hampshire added that cutting work on participation and outreach risks widening access gaps between the most and least affluent young people that universities have spent years trying to close.
Wider Cuts and Consolidation
The vice-chancellors surveyed said that cuts could occur across the board if financial conditions worsen, including to research, buildings and maintenance. Many are also considering mergers or partnerships with other universities. Earlier this month, King’s College London announced it will absorb Cranfield University, the technology and management postgraduate institution based in Bedfordshire, in a sign that consolidation could become more common.
Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, expressed concern about this trend. “Mergers and takeovers are not a solution to this crisis, they are a symptom. The governments and vice-chancellors now urgently need to listen to university staff, invest in jobs, shore up capacity and re-establish the UK as a global higher education leader,” she said.
Alex Stanley, vice president for higher education at the National Union of Students, stressed that universities must prioritize protecting their students. “For the students, this comes alongside maintenance loans that haven’t kept in line with inflation while their costs, and their debts, continue to grow at astronomical rates,” Stanley said.
