Open letter to the Secretary of State for Education
Dear Secretary of State,
Dear Secretary of State for Education, We, the undersigned organisations, are writing to express our profound concern with the declining state of the Higher Education sector. Universities in the UK are in crisis. The University and College Union estimates that more than 15,000 university jobs have been cut since 2024, while The Times reports that over 4,000 university courses have closed in the same period. Across the higher education sector, students and staff now live in constant uncertainty, unsure whether their courses, departments, or jobs will survive another year. More than 70% of UK universities are experiencing serious financial strain, with many institutions failing to meet recruitment targets and reporting significant deficits. Students are already feeling the consequences of shrinking departments, smaller cohorts, reduced academic support, and widespread staff redundancies. This situation is unsustainable and risks the collapse of the sector. Universities are held accountable by the Office for Students to widen participation and ensure access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Yet almost half of all course closures have occurred at lowertariff institutions, at more than double the rate of high- tariff universities. As a result, students from working-class and under-represented backgrounds face diminishing opportunities to access higher education. This creates a dangerous cycle in which struggling institutions attract fewer students and become even less financially stable. At the same time, government has introduced increasingly hostile immigration policies that have severely damaged international recruitment. Universities were left to absorb the economic shock of Brexit, and now face further restrictions that limit their ability to attract overseas students. Government policy has actively reduced university income, yet institutions have been left to manage the consequences alone. This is deeply short-sighted. Universities are an economic powerhouse. For every £1 of public investment, universities generate £14 for the UK economy, contributing £265 billion annually. Each home student adds approximately £75,000 in economic value. Allowing universities to fail places thousands of jobs at risk and removes a major driver of national economic growth. Across the country, campuses have become quieter, more fearful places. Students worry about restructures, the loss of research supervisors, and the disappearance of experienced lecturers. Entire departments are closing, with one in five universities cutting whole subject areas. International diversity is declining, academic capacity is shrinking, and universities are increasingly unable to fulfil their purpose as places where knowledge and ideas thrive. We are calling on you to give this crisis the attention it urgently deserves. Through restrictive immigration policy, reduced teaching and research grants, and a failure to act preventatively, the government has allowed the sector to reach breaking point. Responsibility now lies with on the government to address the structural flaws in the university funding model. We want to be clear: the financial burden must not be passed on to students. Many students already oppose proposed inflationary tuition fee rises, particularly as the quality of education and student experience has declined. Cuts have reduced academic support, narrowed module choice, and left gaps in specialist expertise. Student experience is declining with reductions in core grants to Studentsʼ Unions. Students should not be expected to pay the price for government funding failures, and a comprehensive reform to the student loan system is necessary to avoid the price to be passed on to students. We urge you to consider this and advocate for meaningful reform. This must include a fundamental review of the higher education funding model, a substantial increase in grant funding, a serious challenge to immigration policies that undermine institutional stability and diversity, and a review of the regional distribution of students through the reintroduction of student recruitment caps. Higher education is at a tipping point. Without decisive government action, universities will continue to shrink and a world-leading sector will be lost. We ask you to stand up for students, staff, and the future of UK higher education.
Yours sincerely,
University of Essex Students’ Union