Which Universities are most at risk financially, post-COVID?

[ComeBy]

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

Any views on which establishments are most at risk?

Should the Government look at the provision overall and what the UK sector needs and intervene to support and cull, saving the educationally, strategically and financially most important, rather than leaving it to a survival of the fittest or Devil take the hindmost?

Yes, I think it is but in London?

@NewModelArmyMayhem18

Always thought Regent's College is American?

Are you thinking of Richmond?

Regents isn't American, just a private provider catering to international super-rich elite, Saudi royals and the like. Worth a visit to see all the chauffeurs lined up in the park at the end of the day

The article mentioned 'Birmingham' but the graph shows University College Birmingham not UofB.

I'm in HE, fortunately in a faculty with increasing student numbers and currently able to seek funding for resources required for the next academic year as we are at financial year end.

In my experience, Universities already face fixed incomes and increasing overheads and the stress is not all about a sudden university closure, but what will be cut. Cuts seem to hit language and art programmes first, faculties can be merged with 'voluntary' redundancy schemes, larger teaching rooms are created to cram bums-on-seats rather than small group learning, fewer resources etc.

My advice for new applicants would be to ask about contact (teaching) time hours, contact ratio (staff:students), tutor support (academic & pastoral), and seek National Student Survey (NSS) feedback.

The article mentioned 'Birmingham' but the graph shows University College Birmingham not UofB.

I was rather intrigued by UCB having so many international students (and Coventry?). UoB does have quite a lot, I think, but whether it is desperately reliant on them is another matter.

Simple basic economics as it's plain old supply and demand like any other business! Very sad but very true as Covid has killed so much more than just fellow innocent human beings.

I am guessing there is too much diversity in "UK universities" already. Some are not particularly educationally established, intellectually challenging and therefore do not provide a realistic expectation for their student demographic. These universities are sadly for these reasons not particularly sought after in the labour market. Not necessarily right as diversity is good in principle but when one rocks up from graduating from certain less well known universities one would not expect to be necessarily selected when faced with candidates from the usual suspects. Rule of the jungle I afraid.

I also think there should now be an opportunity to change the whole university education system and possibly supplement with a useful and recognised alternative such as technical on the job apprenticeships for in demand skills and knowledge like those found in Germany and South Korea etc.

We need to ensure the very pinnacle of UK universities and advanced research is elevated with more support to keep up with the world's best as many up and coming universities well otherwise cause more relative disadvantage for the lower ranked current UK universities.

Also get rid of the useless new soft snowflakery subjects that no one read before or believes add any tangible educational value. They are only there to get otherwise non university caliber students in for a three year doss or jolly after school.

It’s interesting how things have changed. DH& I did not go to uni in the UK so employers are very unlikely to have heard of it. But because a much smaller percentage of school leavers went to uni back then, graduates were often in short supply (in our fields at least) so this was not a disadvantage & we were both recruited by UK companies straight from uni.

I wonder how we would fare now!

Also get rid of the useless new soft snowflakery subjects that no one read before or believes add any tangible educational value. They are only there to get otherwise non university caliber students in for a three year doss or jolly after school.

Agree. Classics. Ancient History. Anthropology. About as useless as you can get.

Please tell me you are being ironic... I think so..

I require a list of snowflakery subjects

University courses which may not best fit the HR hiring criteria.

Slightly off on a frolic but as an aside try these on for size:

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1710482

or as found in USA (maybe here in UK too possibly):

bestlifeonline.com/funniest-college-courses/

University courses which may not best fit the HR hiring criteria.

The majority of graduate jobs don't ask for a specific degree. Just a degree. In snowflake studies or anything.

Golf management (mentioned on that list) has one of the best graduate employment record of any degree btw.

Sorry to ruin your boos with facts.

Boos? Post.

I think we need to move back to a university/technical university distinction. It used to be the case that some old polys had really good reputations for what they did, eg Oxford, what is now Nottingham Trent uni etc. Trying to make all institutions all things to all people was a silly idea.

A German friend of mine studied at a technical university in Germany with a year in Coventry and she has been in constant employment since she graduated, originally in the UK and then back in Germany.

University courses which may not best fit the HR hiring criteria

Perhaps HR staff should stop being so lazy and do some work instead of letting discriminatory algorithms do their hiring (at least the early stages of it).

Think boos worked better.

I also wonder who made Student room the authority?

With self induced triple whammy of Brextania, Covid plus remote technology learning- instead of ultra diversity of universities and courses to include Beckhamism or golfogy studies. I am big into golf by the way more bullarding than sandbagger, how about something along the lines of "Global Cambridge: Achieving zero-carbon flight and land-based power" to think well outside the box and for inspirational Brextania ambition for future British generations:

Not to offend anyone selecting these specialties:

www.toptenz.net/to-10-useless-college-classes-degrees.php

I think we need to move back to a university/technical university distinction.

I'm not sure if that distinction is necessary, but recent noises which suggested putting more emphasis on FE colleges and less on universities sound sensible.

Golf management is a proper vocational course, but is perhaps an example that probably shouldn't be 'uni' with the consequent high fees etc. There's a really good FE college near us which offers this subject at various levels (and has some beautifully manicured greens) along with all sorts of useful agricultural skills, tree surgery, vet nursing, horticulture etc - we used to go to their open day when DD was younger and if she'd not been an academic type we'd have been very happy if she'd found a course that suited her there there rather than going to a low ranking university.

And the other thing we seem to have lost somewhere in Blair's great plan for 50% uni students seems to have been continuing education - a nearby uni used to offer some good courses which many older people did ad hoc, or the OU used to allow individual modules which were really useful for professional development, rather than needing to sign up for a full, expensive, degree course.

Note on the whacky US list ... those mostly looked like single credit options not degree courses as such. Bubbles at CalTech may well include some bloody difficult chemistry and physics, some of which have serious applications.

The 'global Cambridge' link looks quite interesting- I've only watched the introduction so far but perhaps that demonstrates a good balance between unis doing excellent research and teaching but then disseminating information and generating discussion widely.

However, I'm not entirely sure of the relevance to this thread. Engineering is one of the subjects which needs to be done mostly not via distance learning, in numbers and at different levels.

The majority of graduate jobs don't ask for a specific degree. Just a degree. In snowflake studies or anything

We love picking up snowflake degrees at my workplace. They do have a good skill set that suits us. I am talking about the ones that never moved on from their little Saturday student jobs, the failed and stranded. (Sadly there seems to be a lot of them.)
But yes, if they are after the big bugs, they will be disappointed, we only just about manage to pay above mim wage after 12 months...

The golf management course at Birmingham is more about business. It's not horticulture. It has high entry requirements (including golfing ability!) And links to The Belfry. I agree that if yoyvwant to be a greenkeeper a uni degree is not for the best.

But yes, if they are after the big bugs, they will be disappointed, we only just about manage to pay above mim wage after 12 months...

Assuming that for bugs, one should read bucks(?), so what? Unless you could actually afford to pay more but just aren't, of course. Some people are genuinely not motivated by getting more than they actually need in monetary terms. And presumably, a proportion of those you take on just use their time there as a springboard into something a bit better paid which has 'previous experience' as one of its requirements?

Can someone have a rough guess at the 13 for me please.

@Lightofthephoenix

Can someone have a rough guess at the 13 for me please.

No one here is going to be able to list the mythical 13 with any degree of accuracy. For one the 13 isn't really on any list at all. People who are in a position to suggest which institutions are struggling aren't going to because it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. All people on here will cite are the former polytechnics and HE colleges, without any actual knowledge.

Most of the post-92s are actually run very very well and less tightly. I think people might be surprised at how at risk some of the MN faves are....

Has Coronavirus Exposed the True Price of College? | Steve Forbes | What's Ahead | Forbes

Caveat USA but possibly general discussion points raised and overall sentiment applicable to UK?