UK universities face money troubles as student numbers drop unexpectedly
Higher education in UK deals with big money problems as fewer students join universities than expected. New data shows both local and international student numbers are down‚ putting many schools at risk
The UK education sector faces a tough-time ahead with many schools struggling to stay afloat. A new report by the Office for Students shows that about 72% of higher-ed providers might run out of money by mid-2025 (which is way more than they thought before)
The numbers dont look good: schools might lose £3.4 billion yearly income. Even though the government said theyʼd raise tuition fees to £9‚535 next year its not enough to fix things. The whole situation is worse than what experts thought just 6 months ago — when they made their first guess about schools money problems
Local and foreign student numbers are down big-time. UK students are 10% below what schools wanted while international students dropped 23%. Susan Lapworth from OfS points out that bigger research schools are doing ok; but smaller ones might be in trouble. Visa requests from students dropped 16% since last year‚ and some countries like Nigeria and Bangladesh sent 40% less students
- 100 schools didnt get enough UK students
- 150 schools missed their international student goals
- Medium-sized schools face more problems
- Special-focus schools might struggle most
Our modelling estimates the financial challenge ahead for providers and it does not conclude that significant numbers of universities will close in the short term
Vivienne Stern from Universities UK says this is super-serious: schools need help to keep going. The real value of student fees went down by one-third over ten years‚ and even though the government is trying to help now they need to do more
