Research funding is unsustainable.
In his independent review of the research ecosystem Paul Nurse wrote that
There needs to be a detailed review of response-mode and competitive grants, full Economic Costing (fEC) and Quality-related Research Funding (QR), and where necessary, these funding mechanisms should be reformed or replaced. The present underpinning of UK university research by other commercial income sources, notably fees paid by international students, is valuable, but care is needed as such sources are not always reliable and sustainable.
It felt like the moment that someone had said the quiet part out loud. The entire UK research ecosystem is only made viable by international student fees.
The implication of Nurse’s statement is that as long as international student fees continue to flow then the research base will continue to grow. Whether the UK will continue to be an attractive place for international students in the coming decades is anyone’s guess but there is evidence that the UK is already hitting a tipping point in research funding.
