Watchdog says ‘all options’ should be on table to save universities

The university watchdog has declared “all options” should be on the table to fix the struggling sector, warning the “golden age of higher education” could be over.

Office for Students (OFS) interim chair David Behan said increased tuition fees and lifting visa restrictions on international students could help revive embattled institutions.

He told The Sunday Times: “I think the resilience of the sector overall has been tested by a number of different forces… the global pandemic, the impact of leaving the European Union.

“There’s been unprecedented political change across our governments over the past few years, in terms of secretaries of state and continuity,” he said.

“We’ve had industrial action, the cost-of-living crisis, the increasing cost of pensions and decreasing number of international students, and then, finally, domestic undergraduate fees remaining frozen since 2012… and what it’s meant is that the fiscal deficit for some organisations is significant.”

Behan called on universities to explore mergers or partnership arrangements with other institutions, amid fears some institutions could be facing bankruptcy.

The Times reported “at least three” universities are understood to be “in serious peril”.

“It’s important that universities revise their medium-term financial strategies… they can’t just carry on,” said Behan.

Thousands of graduates received their A-level results on Thursday when Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said any large increase in tuition fees in the next five years would be “unpalatable”.

Phillipson told Sky News: “I do recognise the challenge, and I hear that message from institutions as well, but I think that’s a really unpalatable thing to be considering.

“Not least because I know that lots of students across the country are already facing big challenges around the cost of living, housing costs, lots of students I speak to who are already working lots of jobs, extra hours, in order to pay for their studies.”

University leaders have been calling on the government to raise the annual tuition fee for domestic students in line with inflation to help institutions struggling financially.

The previous government raised the cap on university tuition fees in England to £9,000 a year in 2012 but it has been fixed at £9,250 since 2017.

Phillipson said the Government does intend to “reform the system overall”.

Reporting from Jessica Coates, Press Association