Job and course cuts sought by modern universities in England have brought warnings that ministerial and regulatory pressure could inflict the inverse of “levelling up” on struggling regions and potentially “refashion the sector” in unintended ways.
However, one finance expert also said that universities citing the cost-of-living crisis to justify cuts were “lazily misusing” the concept.
A spate of cuts announcements saw the University of Wolverhampton say it was suspending recruitment to 138 undergraduate and taught postgraduate courses, as part of a “recovery plan” to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, rising costs and falling student enrolment, including from hits to overseas recruitment brought on by Covid.
