The UK’s higher education sector has remained in significant financial and operational turmoil over the summer.  

The extent of the crisis became apparent for UEA in 2023 when the university was covered exclusively in a BBC article examining the £45m deficit it was facing. This is not an issue suffered in solitude by UEA, with similar stories reflected up and down the country.  

Up to 67 higher education institutions are carrying out programs of restructuring and redundancies. This is in response to the many issues that plague higher education in the UK, ranging from energy costs to low course uptake and tuition fee caps. This is in addition to the cost-of-living crisis, felt by students nationally. 

In Concrete’s recent interview with Vice-Chancellor Prof. David Maguire , the now-permanent leader shed some light on funding concerns felt by universities.  

Funding for universities has stagnated for several years due to the freezing of tuition fees at £9,250, as well a decline in new undergraduate students. This decline in students, both from the UK and internationally, has pulled the rug on tuition incomes for universities. 

UEA’s VC spoke to the BBC again in May on the financial difficulty that has come from a reported 40% drop in international student applications. This followed the Sunak government’s tightening of restrictions on bringing families to the UK.  

The concern over student uptake has been echoed over the summer as universities anxiously await A-Level results day. Maguire also told the BBC, “an awful lot of institutions are placing extremely large bets on this recruitment round” adding, “I don’t think there are enough students to go around”. This low recruitment problem is driven home by the nearly 4000 domestic undergraduate vacancies shared by two thirds of the Russell Group universities, compared to just 2000 this time last year. 

The new Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson indicated that the Labour government will not increase funding or alter the tuition fees system to support universities. Instead, it is opting to reform the Office for Students for a long-term regulation plan based on a report published in July.  

This new mission to support universities through the regulator is already in action, with the Office for Students searching for professional services contracts intended to evaluate higher education providers facing financial risk. The contracts are estimated to value between £2mn and £4mn according to the tender seen by the Financial Times.  

Whilst universities prepare for another year of financial woes, students are still being hit by the cost of living. UEA’s VC (in conversation with Concrete) spoke on the topic of maintenance loans for students, stating that “it’s pretty clear that students are really struggling to make ends meet on a regular basis”.  

The pressures on individual students trying to live and study continue year on year as the maintenance loans granted by SfE fail to rise with inflation. A study by MoneySavingExpert from February highlights that loans have lagged by around 11% behind inflation since 2021. 

The upcoming academic year will be the first in which inflation has stood between 2-3% since the 2021/22 academic year began. Only time will tell if the burden on students and staff will lessen and help attract more to higher education.