Experts fear an exodus from teacher training following this week's announcement from the Open University that it is to axe its primary PGCE course. It blames mounting curriculum demands.
Their concerns were further fuelled by news that Greenwich University has abandoned eight secondary teacher training courses and Nene College is axing its secondary PGCE programme just three years after it began.
In all, 500 teacher training places have been lost this year.
The decision by the OU, Britain's biggest university provider of postgraduate teacher training, was described as a "major bombshell" by John Howson, a Teacher Training Agency consultant.
Dr Howson is so worried that no one will be left to train the dwindling numbers of would-be teachers that he is organising an emergency conference for December.
He said old universities are particularly likely to pull out of certain subject areas as course numbers fall so low that they become unviable, or they are forced by the inspection and funding regime to "train teachers, instead of educate them".
The OU said it was having to cancel its primary PGCE until the year 2001. Hundreds of students expecting to take up places got letters this week telling them the course was off. Cancelling it will cost the OU up to Pounds 1 million a year.
Vice-chancellor John Daniel said course leaders could not adjust in time to the TTA's rigorous demands for a new national curriculum in maths, English and computer training.
"A lot of people are going to be really upset by this, but the changes are considerable," he said.
Charles Clarke, the junior minister responsible for teacher training, said he would study the OU decision "very closely". He said: "It is clear to everyone that the recruitment of teachers is an urgent priority."
Heads of university education departments have warned that the recruitment crisis, combined with mounting concern over the TTA's unpopular funding and inspection regime, could prompt universities to vote with their feet.
Mary Russell, secretary to the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, said: "Universities are seriously considering their futures as teacher trainers."
Universities still provide more than 90 per cent of teachers but they feel isolated by plans to shift training into schools.
Arthur Lucas, principal of King's College London and an adviser to the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals on teacher training, said that he would be surprised if there was a mass exodus, although "instability" in the system was a major concern.
It is likely, he said, that institutions will pull out of provision in courses where recruitment problems make it impossible to provide a "good teaching experience".
John Randall, Quality Assurance Agency chief executive, told delegates at a teaching and learning conference two weeks ago that the quality inspection of universities' teacher education provision by Ofsted was more appropriate to schools than to higher education.
Clive Booth, chairman of the TTA, said that there was no link between the OU's decision and any general withdrawal of higher education providers. "I have no knowledge of any other institutions planning to pull-out," he said.
"I have gone out of my way to say how much the TTA values the contribution of higher education in teacher training. Fears that have been felt by universities that the TTA was set up with a hidden agenda to eliminate higher education in teacher training have not been borne out."
TRAINING FACTS
* In 1997-98 there were 61,972 registered students on all teacher training courses
* Applications to BEd primary courses have fallen by almost a third in two years, from 95,000 to 67,000 this year. There are two applicants per place.
* As of this week, 17,370 students have been accepted on to PGCE courses for 1998-99. The target is 20,000
* So far 10,489 students have been accepted on to undergraduate BEd courses for 1998-99
* There are 900 students on school-centred teacher training (SCITT) courses
* The TTA intends to double the numbers in other jobs who are training to teach from 500 to 1,000 by December 1999.
* The TTA spends Pounds 900,000 on research, Pounds 4.9 million on administration and Pounds 600,000 on external relations.
Source: Education Data Survey/UCAS/TTA/HESA