Would the fact uni of York is in financial difficulties put you off your dc going there?

[JennyTals]

? Would that influence you at all ?

All universities are in financial difficulties at the moment.

What about York being on the verge of going bust tho

Almost every university is in financial trouble at present. I'd perhaps look at the numbers who have enrolled the last 5 years on the course your child is interested in. Arts and humanities seems to be taking the biggest hit as student numbers are dropping so this is where a lot of universities propose to make cuts in courses and staffing. York is a good university with a good reputation and if financial difficulties deterred people then there would be very few universities left to chose amongst.

I think it might put me off any small niche courses because there have been instances of other unis pulling courses midway through (Kent, for example, IIRC) but it wouldn't put me off overall.

As pp said, most of them are.

I don't think they can be any worse off than most universities - their latest balance sheet looks healthy enough. Like others said, with most unis it will be very small niche courses which might be cut.

Definitely. It would be similar to taking a job in a company that's about to go under. Staff will be miserable, stressed and more likely to leave, resources will be more scarce, students may find that courses or modules they had planned on taking will be dropped, etc etc.

York is also a nightmare for student accommodation, which would also put me off just on a normal year.

I would want to look very very carefully at other options if it were me / my DC.

Dig into many of them and you will see contraction. York, Edinburgh, Coventry, Nottingham, St Andrews, QMUL, Sussex, Birmingham, Essex, Keele, Kent, Lancaster and on and on. Yes, it puts me off, but for the most part all are cutting staff and modules. Oxbridge uses postgrads to do the teaching - everywhere is stripping back. So I guess you check whether your subject area is more or less robust and decide that way. What a shame we could not have overturned the marketisation of education. York has, btw, managed to push back the 30 compulsory redundancies, but management always comes back and in this case will use cuts to claw back the £34 million deficit, which worsens student experience. In short, don't think you can avoid it wherever you go.

First post nails it! I'd more be thinking about actual courses that are more likely to get cut

I'm considering encouraging my DD to look at the OU and apprenticeships rather than a traditional university route. She can work part time and do an OU course, or work and train as an apprentice, which would be less risky than going to uni, getting into debt, and not being able to complete her chosen course of study.

York is predicted to have a huge shortfall of foreign students and has lowered entry standards for them. It’s also short of Uk students so needs to find £34 million shortfall and is making redundancies. It’s not going anywhere but there must be an impact of these cuts. Whether students will feel it directly is a moot point.

By all means offer that as an alternative and it may be the best option for your DD but going away to Uni does offer a different life experience.

And to OP yes we will be looking at the financial health of Unis when we come to that in a couple of years as one of the factors to consider.

Most UK universities are on the brink of bankruptcy. York doesn't stand out particularly, so far as I'm aware: they've just had more attention on social media. Wherever you go next year, there's a fair chance you'll graduate from a different university from to one you enrolled at, as a result of either closures or mergers. In some cases, you might have to complete a different degree from the one you started, as academic staff get made redundant and others emigrate/retire/go on sick leave/move to a different industry before courses can be "taught out". There will be a few humanities and language courses left with only one member of staff to teach specialist modules, which makes them very vulnerable.

Obviously!

My son goes to York. It’s going great for him. Not sure what the PP means about the accommodations. It’s all been great in halls and he has a house share for next year.

Don’t overthink it too much. They all have problems of some description if you look hard enough.

Yes, it would influence me. And I would be nervous. I would try to work out where cuts were focussed. What subject area is your DC looking at, OP?

York is DCs top choice for next year. It's for a course with a big intake and is in the top 10 in the country for that subject. I've done some digging around theirs and others financial situation and doesn't seem particularly worse than a lot of other unis. At least they're trying to address it by pausing big building works etc.
We'll go to the offer day in February and see if any mention is made of it but if DC wants to go there that's fine.

Quite a bit of info here Finances.
They are open about it.

Almost all universities are in a financial mess not helped by the drop in intentional students due to government restrictions.

34 million savings is about average. They are all encouraging staff to take voluntary severance with threats of redundancy.

They are unlikely to cut courses in full because they then lose income. They want fewer staff on each programme.

One of my friends works in finance in a Russell Group uni. She doesn’t know how they’re going to make it work once the new employer NI contributions kick in. She says they’re absolutely screwed.

Please say, or hint, which one......

DS also at York and I don’t recognise the previous comment about accommodation being difficult. Maybe if you enter via clearing but that applies everywhere. There’s the usual crazy early private rental circus in Autumn each year but houses are plentiful.

Accommodation is not difficult but it is very expensive.

Interesting, DC is final year and considering a quite niche Masters. It is however one of only a handful and very well regarded. Food for thought.

There was a thread about this earlier in the Autumn and a York admin person came on and said everything was actually going to be fine. I can't remember the details or the thread title, unhelpfully.

My son is going to York in Sept 2025 so I'm following them on Instagram. They are closing buildings and turning off heating over the Xmas holidays. I expect this is one of many money-saving measures they are having to undertake.

Name changed as don't want my posts to be too identifiable together.

I work at a Russell Group uni. More than two thirds of universities are about to start running in deficit, especially when the higher NI comes in. The money that will be coming in from increased tuition fees is obliterated by the NI increase by a large margin. There is still a huge reliance on overseas students, but those students are now choosing elsewhere in the world. The UK is not as desirable as it used to be. There have also been changes in higher level apprenticeships that have affected income. There is going to be a lot of disruption in HE in the coming years.

My DD is due to go in Sept 2025, I'm tempted to advise her to consider other options.

@Flirusnian other than incredibly competitive apprenticeships what else will you advise her to look at?