Thousands of job cuts in UK higher education could be announced by the end of the year, with university leaders claiming that the rise in English tuition fees has come “too late” to fend off redundancies. The announcement that tuition fees in England will rise for the first time since 2017 – from £9,250 to £9,535 next autumn – has done little to alleviate financial difficulties being felt across the sector. Last week the English regulator estimated that almost three-quarters of higher education providers face being in deficit next year despite the rise in fees, after student recruitment lagged well below expectations. This week the University of East Anglia said it expected to cut another 170 jobs, with compulsory redundancies a possibility. They said that by the end of the year they expected to see about 100 universities making cuts of roughly 100 people, adding up to a sector-wide total of 10,000.

Source: The Times November 21, 2024 14:57 UTC