Should struggling universities be supported or allowed to fail?

[LCM001a]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3p93j3823o

25 universities are at risk of bankruptcy. What is the answer here? Should they be supported by the government to keep going? Should they be allowed to fail and the whole university sector be restructured?

I feel like we will end up with only mega universities offering popular courses, and the smaller universities with more niche subjects will disappear. This seems to go against everything that academia should be about, and feels like we will end up with just corporate academia left.

What is the purpose of universities? It looks more and more like it is to make money, not to create knowledgeable skilled students, and to extend our understanding of the world. How did we get here?

I think we need restructuring. But it's a massive job. Too many kids go to uni, taking on huge loans, and the graduate-level jobs are not there when they finish.

But how to get there? We'd need some kind of phasing-out of courses or unis I guess. And what about all the tens of thousands of staff? It needs someone cleverer than me to figure it out.

Meanwhile they are building many student accommodation blocks in my city, which I think will be white elephants in 5-10 years.

Oh, and the plan needs to include stronger moves to cut out AI, so that graduates actually learn what they are supposed to learn. Back to pen and paper in exams?

"How did we get here?"

Politicians wanting to expand the uni sector, to keep unemployment numbers down, and to compete in the global market by upping skills levels - but at the expense of the excess students who should never have been at uni.

I think the HE sector is too large. Too many students attending courses for random reasons that won't help there future prospects.

So many times of my students have drifted onto my course, they shouldn't be their , they are wasting their time and money. The degree has become the default option when it's not a good fit for so many students, with the corresponding mental health crisis.

But it's a big problem to undo, gov policy since the 90s has been about expanding HE. In many towns and cities the university is the only thing keeping the lights on in terms of jobs and investment. Allowing unis to go bust is going to be devastating in some locations.

A smarter wind down could happen, where caps go back in and alternative options need to come on line...short courses, apprenticeships...t
Rather then so many being funnelled into degrees. The issue is HE is propping up a vast part of the UK economy, if it fails thats bad. But is also unfair for students to bear so much of the costs.

Ultimately the gov has to realise that unis are important and worth finding, but the open door recruitment policy is a disaster. Unis need to be allowed to be smaller without financial ruin and alternative options need to exist