Thread by @pmdfoster

What happened to that Universities #Coronavirus bailout?

Well. A halfway house. Short-term cashflow stabilisation by advancing £2.6bn tuition fees, but NO £2bn bailout of research funding as @UniversitiesUK asked. My latest. So what does that mean? /1

ft.com/content/540683…

@UniversitiesUK Well, as Sir Steve Smith, vice-chancellor at @UniofExeter tells me, it's only the 'first part of the deal' - the question of research funding is now kicked into a ministerial working party to decide what to do. Why does that matter? /2

@UniversitiesUK @UniofExeter Because research students, worth £6.9bn a year, cross subsidise both research and universities.

The Russell Group estimates that #Coronavirus could cost them £1.7bn in lost revenues this year. So how to fill the gap and protect research base? /3

@UniversitiesUK @UniofExeter Well, the first answer is not by filling those empty places via predatory admissions policy that sucks students form other institutions.

The English Universities have agreed not to recruit above 5% projected levels...so there will be no 'beggar thy neighbour' approach /4

@UniversitiesUK @UniofExeter Trouble is, the @UniversitiesUK request to govt was a 'package' - the research unis accepted the 'cap' in exchange for advance of £2bn 'QR' or research funding - but the government package (see here) is basically the cap but only £100m. /5

gov.uk/government/new…

@UniversitiesUK @UniofExeter We'll now have to see how govt fills the hole left by predicted #Coronavirus cash crunch caused by drop off in international students which research Unis make such a profit on.

Underlying this approach is a pretty clear message on reform and restructuring... /6

@UniversitiesUK @UniofExeter Read to the end of the govt release and you can see the 'small print' - @hmtreasury line is holding. No guarantees failing institutions get rescued (ministers careful not to guarantee this) and rescues of failing institutions only "as a last resort". /7

@UniversitiesUK @UniofExeter @hmtreasury Viewed somewhat crudely, as one VC put it to me, the government is essentially retaining its leverage here to reform the sector - which is an overt ambition.

Recall Tory manifesto commitment to reduce "low-quality courses" ; #Coronavirus fallout cd be catalyst for this /8

@UniversitiesUK @UniofExeter @hmtreasury The target here, to be clear, is NOT high-end research universities, or at least their high-end research itself - but to try and 'de-bloat' parts of the sector and focus on provision, including Further Education provision, that is more closely tailored to business and community/9

@UniversitiesUK @UniofExeter @hmtreasury That is going to require some difficult political choices and this bailout leaves space to do that.

Taking the UUK line would have arguable cemented the structure of a sector that this govt wants to re-structure, as well as handing lots of cash to already-rich institutions /10

@UniversitiesUK @UniofExeter @hmtreasury SO instead, Govt does enough to stabilise cashflow over the summer; does some enhancements for students (UCAS training, 10k extra places with half for nursing etc) but keeps its power dry for what is yet to come....

If the political will holds, interesting times ahead. ENDS