[News] Universities on the brink?

[Spiros]

Potentially shutting down your business to the world's biggest trading block will not do a business any good.

As Ernest alluded to earlier I think the more likely reason is offering relatively useless courses to students who have started to realise that they might actually be better off getting a trainee job or apprenticeship as that comes with pay and without the £9,500 'debt'

 

[vegster]

They need to get better chancellors and vice chancellors in, bung another £100k on their wages and it will all get sorted.

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

Good shout. They were struggling as "New College Southampton" 20 years ago but were then sustained by generally expanded student numbers.

20 years ago, SSU was called Sourhampton Institute (or the destitute as some wags nicknamed it). New College was part of the University of Southampton.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

20 years ago, SSU was called Sourhampton Institute (or the destitute as some wags nicknamed it). New College was part of the University of Southampton.

Yes, you're right. Getting my low tariff HE institutions in Soton mixed up...

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

As Ernest alluded to earlier I think the more likely reason is offering relatively useless courses to students who have started to realise that they might actually be better off getting a trainee job or apprenticeship as that comes with pay and without the £9,500 'debt'

You might like to revisit that debt figure.

Most Universities are charging £9k a year and providing as little as 10 hours per week (or even less in some cases) contact time.

Most students are now leaving University with between 40-50k of debt.

The system is broken.

 

[The Clamp]

As Ernest alluded to earlier I think the more likely reason is offering relatively useless courses to students who have started to realise that they might actually be better off getting a trainee job or apprenticeship as that comes with pay and without the £9,500 'debt'

I would imagine that feeds into it. There is more than one reason.

 

[seagulls4ever]

Since this government lifted the cap on student numbers three years ago, Sussex seems to have become busier and busier. They might advertise courses as AAA or AAB, but in reality they let in huge numbers of students with grades far lower than that, because of course they want the money. Not only does this bring the overall level of the courses down, it also means that class sizes are far too high. Contact hours are generally pretty low too.There were plans to build a new science building, but it was decided that they didn't actually have the budget for what they wanted and now the plans are being revised.

In 14/15 there were 13,725 students. In 17/18 there were 17,626. The number's now over 18,000 I believe. They are not struggling with student numbers.

 

[Napier's Knee]

Definitely Southampton Solent and maybe University of the Arts, Bournemouth? Defenitely isn't an institution in Sussex

 

[El Presidente]

I don't understand how any universities can be struggling. I was talking to one of my old lecturers a few years ago and he said they had double the number of students (since my day) but no new members of staff. He was complaining vociferously about the workload. Student numbers have risen since then too. So, if the income is doubling or tripling but operational costs are staying roughly the same -although will be some capital cost increases - how on earth can universities be struggling?

I see that vice chancellor salaries have increased 41% in the last decade as universities have become more prosperous. Something doesn't add up

Lecturers moaning is nothing new!

 

[El Presidente]

I may be wrong but I thought the real money is made by a uni from students outside of the Eu? The numbers of these aren't likely to be affected by Brexit as the rules won't change for them

Non EU students are a very lucrative source of income, but the agenda driven politically motivated intstructions to the Border Agency have made it more difficult for students to get to the UK, and so they go elsewhere. It's not been helped by private sector colleges abusing the visa system in recent years to get more unsuitable young people to attend their courses, and the reaction from the Border Agency has been to target everyone, rather than the cowboy operators.

 

[BNthree]

Totally irrelevant to the thread but always found it odd the University of Sussex only has 1 campus and that's in Brighton whereas the University of Brighton has several campuses that are spread across Sussex.

 

[Gwylan]

Lecturers moaning is nothing new!

Yeah, they should all get proper jobs

 

[Wardy's twin]

I’d be gutted if either of the two Universities in the City went bankrupt...

It would be interesting to see how that would affect house prices and availability

 

[Gwylan]

What would happen to the students if a uni did go bust? If you're two and a bit years into a course, would you be expected to start again from scratch? It would leave some students with 100 grand's worth of debt. Or would they transfer to another uni, with the risk that not all syllabuses are the same.

 

[Goldstone1976]

What would happen to the students if a uni did go bust? If you're two and a bit years into a course, would you be expected to start again from scratch? It would leave some students with 100 grand's worth of debt. Or would they transfer to another uni, with the risk that not all syllabuses are the same.

Any fule kno that the plural of syllabus is syllabub.

 

[Gwylan]

Any fule kno that the plural of syllabus is syllabub.

That's only for universities that are the crème de la crème

 

[sir albion]

Potentially shutting down your business to the world's biggest trading block will not do a business any good.

Won't be anywhere near as big once we finally leave and it's just a big group of countries that only has a few big players including us.

Universities are bloody everywhere now and obviously they're all gunning for foreign students as we get about 140,000 a year.
More ways to make money for them and clearly the education becomes second fiddle to the almighty buck as many students will never get that job they want and they won't pay their debts back.
60% of all student debts are never paid back so all these universities are a waste of space!!

 

[Westdene Wonder]

Thanks for that....interesting (junior is at UoB Eastbourne campus)

Too many kids were pushed towards Uni education IMO (particularly during the Blair years), presumably led to the Unis having to expand and invest to cope with the numbers.

As a result too many degree holders chasing fewer vacancies

 

[Goldstone1976]

That's only for universities that are the crème de la crème

Oh, I say!

 

[BNthree]

Potentially shutting down your business to the world's biggest trading block will not do a business any good.

Also any uni that does a lot of serious science research will get a lot of the research funding from European institutions and initiatives. Scientific researchers are crapping themselves at potentially losing a huge portion of their funding.