Universities' financial position - should this affect decision on where to study?

[Gillemeow]

My teen is looking to do sociology and French with a 2026 start date. We have been warned that languages are at the front line of university cuts due to the extra support language students need. We are also conscious that languages involve 4 year degrees due to the year abroad.

Teen is looking at Newcastle University (likely firm choice), University of Liverpool (likely insurance choice), Durham University and University of Manchester. Their predicted grades and GCSEs are fine for all those universities.

We haven't visited Durham yet (going next month) but they are probably the best academically and are higher up the Complete University Guide league tables. It looks like they are in financial trouble though with an operational deficit of £8 million. They have made staff cuts, reduced library opening hours, cut breakfast clubs and reduced placement expenses payments. According to the BBC, "Durham University said it was planning to make £10m cuts during the current academic year and a further £10m during 2025-26."

Newcastle University announced an operational deficit of £5 million in 23/24. It looks like voluntary severance, promotion freezes, restricted travel and cutting unfunded research was the solution. There are no current plans to make any compulsory redundancies.

The University of Liverpool is in surplus and the University of Manchester is significantly in surplus.

We didn't get a good vibe from Manchester, which combined with the nicer and much cheaper accommodation (over £65 a week, for less weeks) at Newcastle has made Newcastle the likely firm choice. We liked Liverpool and Newcastle at the open days but teen prefers the Newcastle course, accommodation, city and campus. There's not a massive difference in the league tables between those 3 unis. All are within a reasonable travelling distance from home.

So to sum up, how much weight should we give concerns about potential further university cut backs and how big a deal is an £8m versus £5m deficit? Is there anything other than the things I listed above that we should be considering before making a decision?

I know many people will say that we shouldn’t be swayed by the financial circumstamces of universities and that doing so just makes them more financially insecure as application/student numbers drop further as a result… but my feeling is you put the needs of your child above all.

My DD is going to next month and we are in the process of attending open days for DS for next year. We absolutely excluded any that have significant financial issues (eg Goldsmiths). Both my DC (17 and 20) have already been impacted by covid/lockdowns and the aftermath of this on the education system - they are also ASD/ADHD but that is almost a side bar - so I feel ensuring 3-4 years of uninterrupted education at university is essential. I’m not prepared to risk a course being impacted by half the modules being cancelled or even the course itself and having to arrange a transfer to another university in extremis.

I think looking into the financials and the certainty of a course continuing is sensible, personally.

Must admit it did cross my mind when dd picked Manchester that there’s unlikely to be cuts. But I do think he has to pick the course which he feels is right for him.

I would definitely consider the financial circumstances of the universities I was applying to. I read an article a week or two back that many universities were expected to close in the next few years unless there was some big changes.

DC1 went to Imperial College. They appear to have plenty of money, judging by the fact that (1) DC1 did several incredibly well-paid jobs for them (2) They give grants of £1000s to any UK student whose parents earn below £70K (3) they paid DC1 £3,000 to work at a university abroad for 2 months over one summer (4) they provided hundreds of year 1 students in hall with pizzas and similar several times (5) students on some courses are given iPads. DC1 got a lab coat and quite a few other bits and pieces.

Is there somewhere you can find a list of all the unis and their financial situation?

A £5m vs £8m deficit is not a significant difference.

Many more universities will be in deficit in the next couple of years. And not being in deficit is no guarantee that cuts will not be made. If a university is returning a lower surplus than it had targetted that is also likely to result in cuts, because they will have earmarked that suplus for investment that they have committed to. I think you will be hard pushed to find a university that isn't making cuts at the moment.

This is useful.
qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/

I would consider the finical issues at the University. We where totally put off Cardiff as they had changed the course from initial application to visiting on offers day. This was due to them reducing staff numbers. So while not ideal I do think it's worth considering.

The thing is that if a university has financial troubles they won’t cut vice chancellor or pro vice chancellors, they will cut support services, student services and academic staff. Cutting academic staff means less variety in courses, less research opportunities e.g summer projects, PhD places etc etc
So yes financial situation does matter.

It’s a worrying time for HE, I don’t think there are any universities who are not struggling financially, they are all making cuts, some quieter than others! Hopefully the government don’t bring in the international student levy. 😩

https://thetab.com/2025/01/20/revealed-the-russell-group-unis-which-are-axing-the-most-staff-to-save-money

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/aug/08/international-student-levy-could-cost-english-universities-600m-a-year

Yes, the proposed international student levy will hit the most "successful" universities hardest, so impossible to make assumptions based on which institutions are currently (seemingly) doing OK.

I’ve just been made redundant from a university - all the cuts are in professional services staff, not UET or directors of departments. What you have is diluted services where staff have to become jack of all trades, no specialist roles, putting more pressure on the staff who are left and years of knowledge walking out the door.

The university are keeping it very quiet but if things don’t improve financially I can see it going under in the next two years.

Sorry to hear about your redundancy, @Letsgetthiswrongagain and the cuts to professional services

This is the table of university finances: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/finances/kfi the problem is that the data is 18 months out of date by the time it is published. Tellingly there are a handful of universities that have not yet published their 2023-24 accounts.

It’s relatively common knowledge in the sector that there are 4 or 5 universities beyond saving, and they are working with the OfS to create an exit plan, which may include takeovers or mergers. Personally I think it’s totally unethical for these universities to continue to recruit when they are unsustainable but that’s what’s happening.

In answer to your question OP, yes it should be a deciding factor but it will be almost impossible for applicants to guess where the ax might fall. Universities making cuts now could be more resilient as a result or it could be the beginning of the end.

I think it’s v sensible to consider the finances of where a YP will study. They’re investing a lot of money in their degree. If this were an Isa, you’d do some research and make sure you got the best bang for your buck. As someone above has said, there are rumours that some unis are in real trouble, after years of under-funding/austerity. Some are more solvent than others. They are better investments.

I’m part way through a course and have lost 2 support tutors and a main lecturer in the last 3 months due to the position of the University. The cuts are definitely effecting my learning right now.

I agree that it is sensible to consider how a university’s financial position will affect the student experience, but difficult to do so.

Eg Edinburgh, a wonderful university, has announced a budget cut of 10% pa for the foreseeable. This is said to be a proactive measure. In the first instance voluntary redundancies and efficiencies are the order of the day but compulsory redundancies and programme cuts have not been ruled out.

Either way, 10% cuts are bound to affect the student experience. Edinburgh academics are not reluctant to strike and the recent Spring marking strike did have impacts for graduating students.

Manchester has offered VS in 2018, 2020 and 2022 and according to the academic union it hasn’t always been pressure free. Perhaps this is why its financial position is so strong?

Of course, this hard knuckled approach is very likely to keep these universities alive through thick and thin.

I agree with @AlphaApple that a few universities probably will not survive and should not be accepting students.

If I had a YP heading to uni now I would read the public data and I would probably start saving articles about universities in trouble. I would encourage my YP to take this into account when applying. However, if someone has very good reason for making certain applications I don’t think they should be put off by anything except imminent closure, which could well be a major problem to deal with. Because the devil you don’t know may be just as bad.

Manchester has offered VS in 2018, 2020 and 2022 and according to the academic union it hasn’t always been pressure free. Perhaps this is why its financial position is so strong?

I believe that Manchester has massive endowments, so similar to places like Cambridge and Oxford? I guess there’s more chance of an older university being in such a position compared to a post 92 or an ex poly?

Google suggests they had an income of over £1.4 billion last year, but no idea what their outgoings are. But they say they have £489 million in cash and short term investments so I don’t think they’re struggling.

universities do all publish their annual financial statements so they might be worth looking at if worried. Problem is that even then it might be hard to weigh up whether a university is on the right trajectory or not. You can’t even be certain that a place having redundancies is struggling, maybe they have simply recognised with falling student numbers they no longer need as many staff, maybe they are being proactive, maybe they have cut some unpopular courses, etc. Maybe with places without publicised redundancies the shit just hasn’t hit the fan yet.

I wasn’t suggesting that Manchester is struggling. I do have the impression they are very conservative fiscally.

Edinburgh is the 3rd best endowed UK university at £2.7B; my impression is that they are not touching that in the present crisis. Imperial is some way behind, then Manchester follows closely.

I don’t think it is a good look to run pressurised severance drives whilst sitting on over £1B of endowments. I accept that most of the money is earmarked. However Larry Summers, former president of Harvard, says that there are always emergency clauses. Unless someone knowledgeable can quote laws saying otherwise I would bet that this also applies in the UK. The union certainly thinks so.

The thing is, there are emergencies like “a building burned down and we forgot to renew our insurance” and there are “emergencies” like chronic public underfunding, spiralling energy costs, global crises and collapsing international student recruitment which have no end in sight. When do you face facts that this isn’t an emergency, it’s the new normal. Universities would be stupid to hollow out their savings to plug financial holes caused by structural issues.

I am astonished to find out any of the Unis is in Surplus

Hollowing out your savings is one thing. Spending some millions under the latter circs you list while keeping your endowment well north of £1B is quite another

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far.

Just wondering which of these figures is best to use for comparison purposes.

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/finances/kfi

Durham's net liquidity days of 21 seems like a scary figure. There's also a post on the student room from 5 years ago (so presumably more costly now) about the uni making lots of money out of their students.

1. Cost of gowns required for formals (which I've been told can't be used for graduation due to having a different clasp)
2. JCR fee of £150-200 paid at the start of the year to reduce cost of events. They say the balls are approx £80 so it doesn't seem like there is much of a cost reduction
3. Library fees of £20

This does make it seem like the university is trying to squeeze extra cash out of its students. I'm not sure if these things are standard but they seem like a massive additional burden on students who will have already had to fork out significant amounts of money to secure their accommodation.

I am trying to take this with a pinch of salt as it's obviously just one disgruntled student but I've not seen anything similar on student room, Mumsnet or What I Wish I'd Known Before I Went To Uni about the other universities my teen is interested in.

Regarding Durham -

You can get a nearly new gown for £24 ordered in advance or when you go there. New ones were about £50. You hire graduation gowns (or buy!) like all other universities.

JCR levy was £150 but this includes discounts and perks like free gym membership for the year. You also don’t have to join, if your YP isn’t going to use the gym may not be worth it but ours went every day so saved money and was on the doorstep so v convenient.

There are no library fees!

Science Minister Peter Kyle heavily signalling that some universities will close. I think this means that they know which ones.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/universities-cannot-return-to-what-they-looked-like-in-the-2010s-says-kyle/ar-AA1LSw1s?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds