University funding and finances

Money pledged for universities carved up and back-ended, opposition document suggests

Initial moves on 2020 budget suggest another reversal of Trump priorities

Private equity-owned BIMM to receive £2.4m in teaching grant as OfS funds new providers for first time

But THE analysis also suggests windfall for institutions if fall in student recruitment is modest 

Dutch universities are conspicuously and consistently successful. Yet their funding is declining and their embrace of internationalism has put them on a collision course with the populist right. John Morgan assesses the mood in Leiden, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Maastricht

Monash wish list includes new agency, universal learning entitlement and ‘coherent’ funding model

Retirees are being invited to live and take classes alongside younger students. Jon Marcus reports

Fresh worries over poor English-language ability of some international students

Elite institutions making last-ditch bid to block multimillion-dollar levy

Proposals for delayed report have to be judged in the round – including implications for those who don’t go to university, says David Robinson

Hundreds of professors had signed petition opposing scrapping of annual subsidy from parent institution

Struggles of Hampshire College suggest to some that students may be reluctant to shape their own degrees in a debt-heavy, career-focused higher education sector

University threat to cut $1.7 million annual subsidy generates widespread protest

Proposal would also withdraw financial support for students from the European Union

Australia’s vice-chancellors must wake up: China's munificence is all motivated by its vast geopolitical ambition, says Nick Forster

The quality of Indian higher education outside a few elite institutions is notoriously poor, and a slew of initiatives aimed at addressing it have made little impact so far. Simon Baker analyses the data to assess the scale of the challenge and asks what more could and should be done

But revival of the demand-driven system would be a mixed blessing, consultant warns

Student action shows US colleges far from accepting their slavery-related debts

Ford administration is blind to incompatibility of statistical metrics and quality teaching, academics warn

Philosopher calls on universities to take AI debate ‘out of the hands of the industry’ and end ‘ethics washing’

Fractures emerge between Democratic candidates – but they, and even Republicans, actually share broad concerns on affordability

The Chinese tech giant’s challenge for universities will be far from an isolated case and universities are not prepared for the nuanced reaction required, says John Ross 

Former universities minister says that, while parents of students with poorer A-levels could pay fees up front, less affluent families could not

A Labor victory in May’s election could still see funding conditional on universities’ employability, diversity or research records, says Andrew Norton

Big datasets linking higher education participation to a range of socio-economic factors are useful and fascinating, but their translation into policy remains fraught 

The advent of datasets linking graduates’ income to their student records has fuelled calls for certain courses and universities to be excluded from public funding. But, ahead of England’s Augar review of post-18 education, the minister who commissioned the longitudinal education outcomes project, David Willetts, warns against such abuses of the data

Hundreds of jobs endangered by £142 million increase in contributions to Teachers’ Pension Scheme, universities say

After more than doubling its spending since the financial crisis, Germany’s long budget boom is set to come to an end

Despite its tarnished reputation and history of collapsed ventures, the for-profit sector retains a strong foothold on the US academy. Paul Basken tracks its successes and failures

Australian government accused of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’

Report from Office for Students says ‘unrealistic’ targets on recruitment could expose an institution to ‘significant risk’

Suggestions that review could yet be published before PM’s departure come as AoC says it will push DfE to ‘publish and implement’

Government affirms Medical Research Future Fund but raids dormant infrastructure kitty

Reduction in fees for rest-of-UK students would add to ‘perfect storm of uncertainty’, says Universities Scotland

Analysis of finance data for English universities suggests some institutions have responded by cutting staff costs

But Nicola Dandridge says that ‘to pile limited public resource into failing institution’ would be mistake

Advocacy groups worried by entry of high-cost private lenders to market

Department advertises for ‘policy expert on HE financial sustainability’ who will shape stance on ‘potential intervention’ if institutions risk closure

Despite thin pickings this time around, Trudeau’s Liberals have probably done enough to win the science vote in October’s election, says Creso Sá

Latest sector-wide figures likely to increase concerns about financial sustainability

Anthony Abraham Jack’s new book distinguishes two kinds of under-represented students and sets out what universities need to do if they truly want to recruit the most disadvantaged students. Matthew Reisz writes

Post-18 education review also said to have looked at proposals to allocate top-up public funding according to subjects’ cost of provision

Lack of detail, not due process, is at the heart of concerns about medical research handouts in Australia, writes John Ross 

Trudeau’s spending splurge seen as an attempt to curry favour with voters ahead of federal election

Stephen Toope cites Brexit and Augar review in all-university email explaining the need to reduce spending

Cash flows are not moving fast enough to keep pace with technology, malaria expert cautions

Ministers love talking about grand government-directed projects, but Philip Hammond must reaffirm tomorrow the UK’s support for open-ended research using quality-related funding, says Stephanie Smith

Staff hit out at ‘financial mismanagement’ as university announces plans to cut roughly a third of modern languages jobs

Ministers are right to question student recruitment practices in some universities, but restricting loan access to those who fail to hit three Ds at A level would be a retrograde step, says Tom Richmond

Hepi survey finds student opinion is in direct opposition to government and regulator policy

Treasury officials will find it harder to ignore the deficit pressures caused by subsidising lower-earning creative arts students after analysis, researcher argues

Report on financial sustainability of UK universities suggests that any attempt to lower fees could have big impact on some institutions

ARC insists allegations of political subversion are ‘baseless’

Negotiations on €100 billion Horizon Europe scheme delayed by East-West tensions and could be slowed further by European elections

Carolyn Fairbarn will urge ministers not to cause ‘needless’ damage to the ‘precious national asset’ of universities

Continued funding squeeze appears inevitable as major parties’ policies trickle out at UA conference

Strides have been taken since the destruction wrought by the US-led invasion, but funding and standards remain unacceptably low, says Mohamed Al-Rubeai

The difficulties even of obtaining a scholarship to study in the West amount to systemic exclusion, says Rudrani Dasgupta

Labor has made an ‘unequivocal commitment’ to restore uncapped funding, vice-chancellors say

One thousand PhD places to be created over next five years