University News: Some students see class and staff cuts

Why are some UK Universities asking for funding aid from the Government?

Transcript

00:00So of course universities are in sort of a bit of a pickle because of course many of

00:05them expanded on the basis that sort of having lots of money but being brought in by fees

00:09allowed them to sort of to provide bigger facilities which of course was great but of

00:14course you need lots of sort of students to sort of to fund that and so in a sort of declining

00:18market as it were then of course you are faced with sort of difficulty of covering the costs.

00:25Back in May, according to the Higher Education Regulator's annual health check, it was revealed

00:30that an increasing number of universities in England face a material risk of closure

00:36unless costs are cut dramatically or merge over the next few years. A report by the Office

00:42for Students found that universities are supposedly reliant on fees from international students

00:47to plug the gaps left by the declining income from domestic students' fees.

00:52It's a bit like public authorities, if they sort of go bankrupt then of course that there

00:57is a sort of a duty on the government to try and do something and I think the sort of the

01:01view of the government is that the universities need to sort themselves out which of course

01:05may sort of be either sort of closures but I suspect it'll be more to do with sort of

01:09mergers of institutions because of course what you have are many sort of thousands of

01:13students at an institution who need to finish their degree course that there is an awful

01:17lot of uncertainty at the moment and of course this is going to undermine the sort of the

01:21attractiveness of certain institutions and undoubtedly you know that they talk about

01:26market forces, the market forces will dictate that some universities will sort of prosper

01:30and some will not but as I say I think the sort of the uncertainty is difficult and of

01:34course it's difficult for the staff involved because of course they're sort of facing the

01:39potential for sort of their jobs disappearing or sort of taking on extra responsibilities

01:43and so on. It's problematic but there is no doubt you know we always need well sort of

01:48trained and educated people so that will continue for sort of for the you know for

01:52as long as I can sort of see in the future yeah so I don't see that changing but I do

01:57sort of see some sort of change in the sector.