As thousands of teenagers prepare for their first day of higher education, the universities of Greenwich and Kent in southern England are taking their own step into the unknown.The two mid-ranking institutions are merging into one of the UK’s biggest, forging a blueprint for others in the economically challenged sector to follow. While both schools will continue under their individual names, the combination aims to create “greater economies of scale” and allow for a “centralizing of some services” under a restructuring that is still being drawn up.The radical move, first discussed three years ago, is a sign of the times in a sector that is struggling to stave off a full-blown financial crisis. British universities have long traded off their stellar global reputation to attract higher-paying international students, but domestic demographics, tighter visa rules and increased competition from Asia is strangling that golden goose.Bloomberg
“I do think there will be some failures in the sector if the government doesn’t do anything,” says Jane Harrington, chief executive officer of London and South East University Group — the merged Greenwich and Kent entity — told Bloomberg News. “They need to understand that the cost of a university failing will be far more than them providing some support.”Figures from trade body Universities UK suggest its members are facing a combined £3.7 billion funding hit by the end of the decade from government policy decisions, such as tighter immigration rules. While the top universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, are somewhat insulated from the crisis, many are in a more precarious position from declining international student income with the lowest ranked the most exposed, according to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Years of frozen domestic tuition fees and rising costs have compounded the problem.“It is fair to say that we are experiencing unprecedented levels of system-wide pressure,” said Nick Vaughan-Williams, provost at the University of Birmingham. His university is able to “weather the storm” but he warns the big international student markets of the UK, Canada, Australia and the US are now facing much tougher competition.“We absolutely need to call out and think through the fundamental decline in key international student markets,” he said. “More East Asian students are choosing to remain in East Asia, and East Asian governments are investing hard in campus infrastructure and in their universities.”Bloomberg
