By Angelina Ross
A real crisis of Higher Education is brewing. The English HE regulator, Office for Students, reports that 40% of universities are running at a loss, and predicts that will rise to half by next year.
For the third consecutive year income has declined, leading indebted institutions to cancel building projects, reduce maintenance, and sell off £400 million of property. Course closures are common, and many universities are resorting to compulsory redundancies.
In just one region, Yorkshire and Humberside, Unison has recorded 1,300 staff departures across universities, with many more positions at risk. In some places like York, redundancies have been voluntary and come with a pay-out, but that still leaves students with worse course choices, educational resources and support. The attacks are wide-ranging:
• York University (£24m savings drive) has cut 270 staff, a 7-8% reduction of staff.
• Hull University (£23m deficit) has cut 206 jobs so far.
• Sheffield Hallam University (£16.3m deficit) lost over 500 staff members—roughly 10% of its workforce—in 2024, aiming to save over £40m in 2024-25.
• The University of Bradford (£16m deficit) is making up to 300 compulsory redundancies, around 20% of its workforce, and cutting courses like media studies – in the city housing the National Media Museum!
The crisis is hitting elite universities as well, and not just in England. Edinburgh has already lost around 350 staff and imposed a hiring freeze, while the Royal College of Art in London has launched a downsizing programme, with redundancies and reductions in hours.
SOAS has pressed ahead with an outrageous ‘fire and rehire’ plan, followed by slashing cleaning staff by 46%, effectively doubling the workload of those remaining while creating health risks for students.
UCL similarly has announced plans to downsize cleaning services across its main campus and halls of residence, proposing the loss of 143 cleaning jobs on campus and 52 in student housing. Those on casual contracts will receive no redundancy pay.
Like SOAS, the workforce most affected consists largely of Black, Latinx, and migrant women, many already in precarious situations. But most the UCL cleaners are in IWGB, who are contesting the sackings and preparing to strike. Students should take solidarity with action. All these cuts are damaging their education and health.
Tuition fees have risen for the first time in eight years, to an extortionate £9,535 a year. But over the past two years student rents have soared by 15-20%, reaching on average £6,500-£9,200 a year, £13,600 in London.
UK universities have increasingly relied on international students, who pay much higher fees. But restrictive and ever-tightening visa rules have made the UK a less attractive destination. Any drop in numbers will intensify the crisis.
Students and lecturers need to unite and fight every cut, with joint meetings to ensure that the union does not concede voluntary redundancies and cuts at the expense of quality education. Equally they should defend migrant workers and international students and fight to abolish the discriminatory fees.
Clampdown on protests
Besides, or rather because of the economic attacks, campuses are becoming much less tolerant of protests.
The Gaza genocide sparked a surge of political activism and struggle, with walkouts, occupations and encampments in solidarity with the Palestinians. Under political pressure, universities have cracked down on dissent and free speech.
At the LSE, seven students were banned from campus and disciplined in July 2024 after a peaceful protest demanding divestment. At SOAS, Palestine Society leader Haya Adams was expelled last month in the middle of his degree. This follows the arrest of two activists, the SOAS 2, on terrorism charges in March. They await trial.
At Leeds Medical School, students were warned by email to avoid ‘pro-Palestinian clothing’. Disgustingly Leeds University kept its contract with a company supplying rabbis for student counselling, which makes it a policy that they must be advocates for Israel, while a Muslim counsellor was pushed out for her pro-Palestine views.
As the new academic year begins, further protests—and institutional pushback—are expected. This new precedent of expulsions as well as tighter rules will be used against protests for student rights too, from fee hikes to accommodation costs.
Students reject Labour
Besides the endless Gaza genocide, the rise of the far right and anti-immigrant atmosphere, as well as cuts to benefits, soaring inflation and bills, and worsening job prospects are all symptoms of a failing capitalist system that effects students and their future as workers.
All this has created profound disillusionment; many are searching for alternatives. Independent student organisation—built by and for students themselves—is urgently needed.
So it is a step forward that Labour student societies at Warwick, Newcastle and Manchester have disaffiliated from Labour to openly orient to ‘Your Party’ – the rest should follow! As Sultana and Corbyn’s new party gains momentum, it has the potential to become a hub for student activism, provided it remains democratic.
The pressures on UK universities are mounting from every direction. Financial crises are driving deep staff cuts, course closures, and outsourcing, while students face declining support and quality of education. At the same time, universities are responding to growing student activism with bans, disciplinary action, and heavy-handed restrictions on protest.
The coming academic year is likely to bring both sharper conflicts and greater opportunities. Students themselves are starting to build a democratic movement where they can decide their own issues and how to fight for them.
They can not only challenge the crisis in higher education but turn the universities once again into bastions of political agitation and struggle as they were in the 1960s or again in the 2010s, linking up with the working class to demand a system that serves people not profit.
