The Guardian’s view on campus discontent: Listen to those on the front lines | Editorial

TThe prospect of university tuition fees crossing the £10,000 threshold in this Parliament will not put a song in the heart of Labor MPs desperate for some good news. However, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson had no choice but to announce on Monday that the price of a degree would be allowed to rise in line with inflation from 2026. The eight-year freeze on annual fees, before Ms Phillipson allowed a small rise to £9,535 last year, was a major factor in the massive funding crisis now gripping higher education.

What is less understandable is that what was given by one administrative hand will be reclaimed by another. Ms Phillipson unveiled her official report on post-16 education and skills, and also confirmed the Home Office’s plan to introduce a levy on fees paid by international students studying at UK institutions. As Chief Executive of Universities UK, Vivienne Stern, He said The House of Commons Education Committee said on Tuesday that the negative impact of these proposed surcharges would cancel out the increased revenue from local fees.

Then one step forward, apparently followed by a step and a half back. Around four in 10 English universities are currently judged to be in financial distress Impotence. But Labor still shies away from adequately tackling the mess that has its roots in the marketing model that began in the 2000s. On the other hand, a toxic morale crisis is spreading through the country’s increasingly dysfunctional universities, to the detriment of students and university staff alike.

According to analysis published by the University and College Union (UCU) this month, more than 12,000 job losses were announced over the past year. Lecturers have already gone on strike this term over cuts at the University of Leicester, and industrial action as well Planned At both Sheffield universities. While Ms Phillipson was speaking in Parliament, the TUC began a ballot for its members on a possible national strike.

The prevailing feeling of anger and distress is not difficult to explain. Mrs Phillipson’s white paper makes Tuition fees will rise in the future provided there is evidence that institutions provide “the world-class education students expect”. But as struggling universities have cut costs to the bone in recent years, the lives of many disillusioned academics are plagued by chronic job insecurity, high staff-student ratios, and administrative overload. Departing colleagues were not replaced, wages were replaced decreased In real terms by nearly 20% over the past decade and a half, surveys indicate alarming levels of stress.

It is fair to say that this is not a context that is conducive to delivering the academic excellence or teaching environment that students deserve. In a sector increasingly dominated by the Russell Group elite, the sense of instability will deepen as struggling universities scramble to survive. A potential wave of cost savings in theory MergersIndeed, a financial crisis, driven as much by financial desperation as by institutional logic, would add an additional dimension of risk and uncertainty.

For now, the government seems content to watch from the sidelines and let market forces play out. But insistence on an inadequate fee-based model of higher education, in which universities are run as competing companies funded by student consumers, produces a miserable academic landscape. There is an urgent need for a more stable public financing system. Addressing the concerns of those on the front lines of campus will be a first step toward planning for a better future.