University Failures and Mergers Could ‘Become Common’: Report

Universities dropping courses, merging with other institutions, and even failing could “become common” if the current funding trajectory stays the same, a report has said. These “tough choices” for England’s universities would be a result of unresolved “serious funding challenges” related to international student recruitment, “unsustainable” research funding, and the home undergraduate fee cap, according to one of four scenarios outlining the future of higher education published on Thursday by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) think tank. According to the report, which was sponsored by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, low-recruiting courses would be closed “in almost all institutions.” Student applications will fall and “almost all” universities would be required to focus their research efforts on a smaller number of projects....