To feel nervous - does anyone know what the 13 Universities facing closure are?

[josben]

DS1 and DS2 are both planning to start Uni in September, and I have just read this article which is very unsettling - does anyone have any idea of what uni's in the below article will be facing closure ?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53280965

It's a scary time to work in HE for sure.
I work in a post 92 institution - it's Q2 and more selective and We're financially secure ( we make a big deal of that) yet we've just announced a voluntary severance scheme and courses are being looked at very closely - although they were already tbf.
This is the third voluntary severance package in as many years. If I were teaching on a struggling course I'd be very worried.

@shortsaint pretty sure the niche-ness of SOAS is probably what makes it struggle a bit more. But keep telling yourself that a degree from Bolton is worth the same as a degree from Durham.

cheese there's a big difference in comparing individual institutions ( which is valid) and making huge sweeping generalisations about a type of university.
The snobbery towards post 92 institutions in MN is ridiculous and offensive on a number of levels.

@Cheeseislife2020 At this stage in my career I am confident enough to hold my own with Russell Group / Oxbridge graduates. I love how I have got where I have with a C and 2 Ds at A level 🤣

It's 3 exams aged 18. If that is what ends up defining you for life, very sad.

Student protection plans - regardless of how robust they are, the Office for Students has a team which will step in and negotiate on befall of the students of a failing institution with the wider sector to place them all, locally if possible, so students will all be able to continue their courses, although inevitably they will be hugely inconvenienced.

Fine not to name struggling unis on here and fair enough re:: the above help with placements, but I hope the unis concerned have the decency not to accept new applications for this Sept/next Sept if/when they know they are about to crash. I understand it's extremely hard for the staff of the unis under threat, but Covid-19 and its effects on schooling and exams etc have been very hard on sixth formers too. The last thing they need is their chosen university collapsing on them after everything they have been through this year (and potentially next year too).

The thing is though, in my experience A Levels aren’t actually that hard?

Take everything on here with a pinch of salt is my advice. As a few posters have said, all universities are concerned and cutting back, pretty much no exceptions. And it would really surprise many of the most strident posters on here to know how wrong some of their assumptions are.

Lots of posters assume that because they went to an RG university themselves in the 90s, and/or now have a child at one, they are experts. It was amusing to see the posters who seriously engaged with @thedancingbear's obviously satirical post and tried to work out what she meant by it! LOL.

Can anyone explain why In the table linked to, why do some universities under "Traditional Classification", have selective/least selective and some have no mention of either? also what does Q1, 2,3 mean (I know its the grouping, but what does it actually mean?

but I hope the unis concerned have the decency not to accept new applications for this Sept/next Sept if/when they know they are about to crash.

There are no (to my knowledge) universities that are on the brink of going bust. So no, of course the 13 are not going to stop recruiting. They're not currently insolvent, and the fastest route to insolvency would be not to recruit!

It's an article at the end of the day, slightly scaremongery (the sector will lose between 7 and 50% of its income due to CV and Brexit - you could write that about any sector!). It's not an imminent prediction of the next couple of months.

I'm not sure I buy any of this. DH works at a top London uni with a heavy international intake. Their numbers are actually up for this September. Students aren't deferring.

@GetRid

I'm not sure I buy any of this. DH works at a top London uni with a heavy international intake. Their numbers are actually up for this September. Students aren't deferring.

Same here. But they're not here yet - we're still predicting lower numbers despite more applications.

@SheikhaPinty

Can anyone explain why In the table linked to, why do some universities under "Traditional Classification", have selective/least selective and some have no mention of either? also what does Q1, 2,3 mean (I know its the grouping, but what does it actually mean?

I’m assuming Q stands for “quartiles”. Is it an entry tariff ranking? I need to find a larger screen to read it on.

I don't think university is the answer for everyone, personally I think with the possibilities digital course offer (Udemy etc.) We will soon realise we have an over capacity in universities.

@ArriettyJones I thought they were quartlies at first but the
heading says "Group", so it doesn't make sense ifysiwm.

At my university applications and acceptances were still up but as titchy says, we still don't know how many will actually come.

My department relies heavily on MA students and half of them come from abroad, we have no idea how many will actually come. Would you go through all the trouble and expense to move to London for 7 months? That's assuming January term is back on campus.

And I think there is still no clarity about the visa issue for non-EU students.

I personally think loads will not come but I could be wrong.

I believe the Govt would have to bail out the sector, too many towns rely on their local Uni.
Also, what message would it send to future students that the country needs in engineering, health, finance, media, digital etc ?

If students had to txfer to another Uni, who is going to pay for their new accommodation? (even if it were available)

No, the Govt rhetoric is designed to stop complacency.

Q1, 2 etc are CUG league table quartiles (cos the NSS is the most accurate way to judge a university's bottom line ); they divided the pre92s into RG or 'pre 92', the post 92s into higher or lower tariff, and didn't categorise those that didn't fall into any of these (specialists or private providers for example).

[quote SheikhaPinty]@ArriettyJones I thought they were quartlies at first but the
heading says "Group", so it doesn't make sense ifysiwm.[/quote]
See footnote 8.

CUG table quartiles? , I see. I'll take it with a tiny pinch of salt then.

No, the Govt rhetoric is designed to stop complacency.

Oh I don't think it's just rhetoric - the Gov would like a small number to go under I'm afraid - just to make the point that there will be no sector bailout.

@SheikhaPinty

CUG table quartiles? , I see. I'll take it with a tiny pinch of salt then.

For this asking why the guardian rankings are so different to the others , one of the factors in this is that the Guardian does not put as much emphasis on research measures in the way it calculates the rankings. This sometimes results in quite different results in terms.of which institutions do best in which subjects.

Quartile just means which quartile of rankings the institution is in. So Q1 means the institution is ranked in the top quartile ( top 25%) for that subject Orr measure

@Cheeseislife2020

The thing is though, in my experience A Levels aren’t actually that hard?

Depends when they were sat. My daughter did hers a 2 years ago and it's all final examination at the end of 2 years, and I thought the standard was quite high. I sat mine in 1989, I thought they were difficult, again final exam after 2 years. However for a number of years A levels did look relatively easy to me, in terms of course work, taking exam resists often and the questions involved.

@titchy I meant that with all sincerity. I had thought there was some deeply meaningful reasoning behind it but it wasn't to be.