The University of Oxford’s new vice-chancellor has found it “jaw-dropping” to learn how “perilous” the higher education funding model is in her first few months leading the institution.
Irene Tracey, a renowned neuroscientist, also warned of the damage Brexit still posed to the sector when she spoke at an event organised by the Higher Education Policy Institute and Advance HE.
Having been in the role since January, Professor Tracey said: “The one jaw-dropping thing I’ve learned in my first three months is just how perilous the higher education sector is financially.
“We really have a worrying financial future.”
At the House of Commons seminar on the global impact of UK higher education, she said university leaders are constantly underwriting and subsidising everything that they do.
