University funding and finances

Country’s top policy advisory body calls for project funding to be more generous with fewer constraints, as institutions’ budgets swell

More support and less complex regulation will allow the hybrid qualifications to flourish across more English institutions and sectors, says Dan Lally

Warning of ‘stranded funding’ as bureaucrats bend the rules of a programme with too many goals

Institution famed for its brutalist campus has paid price for bad luck and bad decisions, staff say

The ‘sector’ may be able to afford more than the current offer, but many individual universities cannot, says Peter Sloane

Rishi Sunak's plan for mathematics to age 18 would come too late to save many university departments, says Ulrike Tillmann

Enrolment declines also shrink, but inflation and historical patterns cited as reasons for sector to expect danger may be lurking

Decision to deter non-EU students with fees likely to ratchet up pressure in an already stretched labour market, particularly for energy and other engineering graduates

Rising Universities Superannuation Scheme provisions mean three-quarters of institutions report deficits, with losses totalling £3.6 billion

First casualty of 2023 may not be the last as federal funds that kept many institutions artificially solvent during the pandemic dry up

Highly regarded institution cuts back due to falling student numbers, high dropout rates and rising energy costs

Extraordinary growth in income caused by higher enrolments and post-Brexit fee uplifts bolsters finances of Russell Group institutions

Ministers accused of adding bureaucracy then ‘putting the costs on universities’ with planned rise while cutting student support in real terms

Reports of a 13 per cent rise in registration fees is unjustifiable in the current economic environment, says Stephen Marston

Trump administration found by congressional watchdog to have largely abandoned investigative office, while Biden team pressed to fix things quicker

London’s revered ‘night university’ enters bicentenary year mired in financial crisis

Westminster government criticised by sector over 2.8 per cent uplift as concern mounts over impact of cost-of-living crisis on students

As bids are polished for the latest round of university alliance grants, debate is building over where longer-term funding should come from

A new ‘accord’ is promised, but hopes under previous Labor governments have sometimes been dashed, says Greg McCarthy

The divestment movement can claim victory. But what about all the companies that enable fossil fuel exploitation, asks Zak Coleman

Move to ‘ease burden’ on applicants could leave institutions with ‘no choice’ but to raise other costs, scholar warns

After a tumultuous 2022, what will the new year bring for higher education? Some of the UK sector’s respected crystal-ball gazers offer their predictions for 2023

Labour leader says party has ‘a number of propositions’ on the issue that will be put forward before the next general election

Universities and regions must decide whether to step in and meet rising demand for more generous scholarship grants

Cardiff University’s Colin Riordan says disappointing proposed budget for Welsh universities will worsen financial pressures caused by inflation

Financially troubled University of the South Pacific was left with £29 million black hole when leadership fell out with biggest member state

It’s been a bleak year as war brought more pain to a world still shaken by the pandemic and other pressures. Universities will be glad to put it behind them

Financial statements, when eventually published, revealed ‘material uncertainty’ over institution’s ability to keep running and £17 million deficit 

Students ‘unlikely to be high up the list of priorities’ for further funding despite risk of dropouts

UAL-commissioned report looks at alternatives inside and outside current system in wake of ‘regressive’ changes

Vice-chancellors’ group launches ‘national conversation’ on future UK-wide research funding and teaching support in England

If the government is set on cutting international students, charging domestic students above the current ceiling is the only option, says Peter Ainsworth

Leaked pitch for gambling hall and online expansion comes after university experts warn majority of income likely to come from addicts

As underpayment claims embroil at least half the sector, Griffith’s proposed circuit breaker provokes more discord

Top research universities have long cited their value in growing local economies, but massive graduate student walkout suggests a critical need to better protect the people who make the magic happen

As political own goals go, threatening to both cap and confine international students to ‘elite’ institutions was in a class of its own, says David Bell

As tuition discounting hits record rates, nation’s higher education leaders feel need to end confusion over their net prices before lawmakers try to do it

More hardship funding, bigger maintenance loans and restored grants would all complement universities’ efforts, says Sarah Stevens

The department’s threat to ban international students from all but the top UK universities is totally counterproductive, says Nick Hillman

Return of grants after almost a decade of loans could create an enrolment surge in an already straining system

The array of challenges facing universities and their leaders is daunting, with a broken funding system underpinning the pain in England

For all their collegiality, pay disparity in Australian universities is ‘not out of step’ with big business

Leading institutions are not ‘lining their pockets’ by shifting recruitment to international students, says analysis, and situation for less prestigious campuses is even worse

Fourth edition of ‘very effective’ programme will look more closely at recruitment processes and science disciplines

Steve West also calls on politicians to ‘get serious’ about solution to declining university funding

If government sets clear ambitions, innovation follows from the private sector and charities – not the other way round, says Ian Walker

Consensus with regions and reversals by parliament’s budget committee help keep coalition promises

Open letter signed by more than 2,000 documents numerous issues with new finance systems – and calls for leaders to take responsibility

Increasingly international universities want to push native-language brain drain up the political agenda, despite their rescue from ‘freefall’ by a recent funding top-up

Ministries and rectors in Austria and Slovakia are yet to reach agreements on the extra funding needed to cover surging costs

The mature student specialist’s renowned politics department could become part of the solution rather than the problem, says Matthew Flinders

Cash-strapped institutions closing early for Christmas and moving teaching online, but face backlash from policymakers and students

Always left holding the wrong end of the stick, independent institutions hope for a ‘reset’ from the misleadingly named universities accord

Responding to Laurentian crisis, proposal moving through federal Senate would bar public universities from creditor protection, but with only a promise of unspecified alternatives

A sunny outlook on student enrolments is marred by the persistent lack of money for research in the field, says association chair

While India’s prestigious IITs flex fundraising muscle, others in sector are ‘left in the lurch’

Populist right-wing leader leaves office with public universities facing bankruptcy and country polarised

Concerns over more rigid control of universities and fear of isolationist thinking causing ‘intellectual impoverishment’ for East and West

Policymakers will need to work out exactly what ‘equity’ means before entrenching it in new funding arrangements

The new prime minister’s orthodoxy will prevent a repeat of the Iron Lady’s raid on the science and higher education budgets, says Terence Kealey