The Guardian view on universities: facing a double whammy

Britain’s higher education sector has probably never been held in such high international esteem. Oxford has just topped the Times Higher Education global ranking table, beating the best US universities – California Institute of Technology (better known as Caltech), Harvard, Princeton and MIT; two other British universities, Cambridge and Imperial, are in the top 10. Only US institutions are better represented in the world’s top 1,000 universities. It is boom time for higher education, as universities invest their students’ £9,000 a year feesin shiny new labs, libraries and sports facilities to compete for students after the lifting of the cap on numbers last year. But in years to come, 2016 may look like the high point before the decline: the consequences of Brexit, a slump in the number of 18-year-olds and, above all, a misconceived higher education bill, will all take their toll. As we report today, universities are making plans for a much chillier future.

The immediate problem is uncertainty. No one knows what effect leaving the EU will have. Britain is the second most popular destination for overseas students: each year more than 70,000 students come from other EU countries, a bit more than 5% of the total undergraduates. Now, they pay the same fees as UK students; after Brexit they will have to pay double, the full international student rate, and they will not be eligible for loans.

 

Continue reading at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/22/the-guardian-view-on-universities-facing-a-double-whammy