UCU comment on Education Committee inquiry into university finances

Responding to the Commons Education Select Committee's announcement that it will be looking into the financial viability of universities, UCU general secretary Jo Grady today said: 'With vice-chancellors axing courses, limiting student provision and slashing thousands of jobs, universities are in crisis and this inquiry couldn't come soon enough.

'Vice-chancellors and successive governments have overseen a boom or bust higher education system, with institutions reliant on hoovering up both domestic and international students to survive. Our submission will set out what's gone wrong and how the system can be fixed. This will include showing how the sector has been hollowed out, leaving universities at risk to fluctuations in international student numbers; and how a publicly funded model will reverse higher education's decline and secure the sector's future as one in which we can continue to lead the world.'