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A-level results are an August rite of passage for hundreds of thousands of teenagers, but this year the students won’t be the only ones swallowing hard as they open envelopes and emails.
For most, these results determine the path into higher education, and, with the university sector facing a funding crisis, scores of vice-chancellors will be feeling just as anxious as their future charges.
Years of underfunding have profoundly weakened the finances of the sector, with widespread concern that a shortage of student numbers could be disastrous for the most exposed.
Across the UK universities are cutting jobs and closing departments. There is even talk of closures and mergers of struggling institutions.
The situation is serious enough for university collapses to feature on the new government’s “s*** list” of potential crises.
Universities are being squeezed by the long-term impact of suppressed tuition fees, and short-term changes to visa regulations for overseas students on whom they have come to rely.
Add concern among British teenagers about the viability of taking on tens of thousands of pounds of debt for the privilege of an education their parents enjoyed largely for free, and this could be the crunch for one of the few sectors in which the UK is genuinely world-leading.
Overseas focus
Tuition fees are the largest single source of income in higher education, contributing almost £27bn in 2022-23, more than the total from grants, research funding and other income combined.
But fees for domestic students have been capped at £9,250 a year since 2017, and have only risen once since they were tripled to £9,000 by the coalition government in 2012.
Had they risen in line with inflation, annual fees this year would be £12,560, meaning that in real terms fees have fallen by 30%.
As a result, UK students do not cover the cost of their education, a position most…
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