University funding/finances

With federal budgets under pressure from inflation and energy costs, universities must balance funding exchange projects versus increasing EU collaborations

Enrolment declines and surging costs also take a toll on operating margins for universities in Australia’s most populous state

Issue was not a problem before inflation started sky-rocketing but has now led to calls for system to be overhauled

Strong financial health at sector level conceals wide institutional variation. If growth is choked off, whole universities could fail, says James Brackley

Coming changes to UK higher education’s second biggest pension scheme will add millions to costs at exactly the wrong time, leaders say

Takeover of private institution by larger public one ‘holds lessons’ for sectors haemorrhaging students due to demographic decline

Restructure proposal follows enrolment crash and sub-inflation boost to teaching subsidies

As Universities Accord shines a spotlight on equity, new research finds that the most propitious pathway is little trodden

Australian universities outside cities say building more accommodation will help students and local communities

While national budget includes big increase to tertiary education funding rates, it still falls short of inflation

Increased contributions to the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme will require cuts to student support services, warns Graham Baldwin

New report examines the financial sustainability of non-elite institutions across four countries

‘Reassuring’ analysis reveals that sector is in surplus when pension provision changes are excluded from financial accounts

While new prime minister has nominated science and skills as budget priorities, sector fears any investment will fall short of inflation

As dozens of student-athletes come under investigation, expert predicts major harms on campus from national embrace of sports betting

Costly residential degrees will eat up LLE funding, leaving ‘difficult choices about how to divide up the cake’, warns OU v-c in Hepi paper

Healthy result provides ‘financial sustainability’ in a ‘volatile higher education sector’, vice-chancellor says

In rare victory for parents, federal appeals court overturns convictions, criticising their alleged bribery but agreeing that USC wasn’t cheated

Accommodation shortages and spiralling rents are damaging the student experience and limiting universities’ expansion ambitions. But amid political turbulence, rising borrowing costs and a shrinking private rental market, how can universities ensure that housing supply meets demand without mortgaging their futures, asks Patrick Jack

Sector looks to Universities Accord to consummate budget’s ‘down payment’

Party expected to stop short of committing to new higher education funding policy pre-election

University leaders under pressure to do more with less amid demands from students for a ‘great hybrid experience’

Trudeau administration hardens line on research ties to China, as academics report unsolicited approaches from intelligence agency

Failure to restore power-sharing means funding issues leading to brain drain are not being resolved, warns Queen’s University Belfast v-c

At formal inauguration, former Duke provost promises new interdisciplinary push, plus sees room to protect climate while keeping Koch funding

May Day rallies kick off a ‘week of action’ from coast to coast, as more union branches plan stoppages – and others reach agreement

Only two of the 24 members of the Russell Group recorded a surplus for the 2021-22 academic year, Hesa figures show

In high-profile instance of Trump administration crackdown, former Harvard nanoscientist gets leniency as he faces incurable cancer

Elite universities could be doing far more to help disadvantaged students, regardless of what the Supreme Court decides on affirmative action, say makers of Exclusion U documentary

Aiming to deny routine extension of federal debt limit, House conservatives hope to force lower Pell grant upon millions of borrowers

Colleges and universities are providing students more in tuition breaks than they collect, in sign of growing budgetary strains

Governance strategy by Trump-backing Republican governor held up by national group of university trustees as model to be emulated

Series of recent shutdowns across the country attributed to shifts in political attitudes and post-Covid technologies

University says attempts to retrospectively change a years-old agreement are about ‘resolving ambiguities’ around how staff are paid for student consultations

UK’s ‘European university’ winds down operations at satellite site, blaming rising costs and recruitment challenges

With international students flocking here in record numbers, administrators deny they are enrolling foreigners to ‘offset’ domestic declines

Former universities minister Lord Johnson of Marylebone says current fee policy is similar to former Labour leader’s plans for free tuition – minus state subsidy

While pundits predicted international woe from border closures, accounts suggest waning domestic demand is doing the damage

‘Regional differentiation’ could help overcome ‘horrific gap in educational attainment’, says non-metropolitan network

As inflation soars and funding lags, administrators look for salvation in looming budget

University of Pennsylvania’s pulling of legacy aid seen as sign of embarrassment and potential harbinger of change across US elite

The aspiration is commendable, but the downsides of running short, flexible courses must be considered from the outset, says David Spendlove

Scientific community counts nation’s economic losses from two decades of underinvestment but can’t budge Trudeau government

The bigger they are, the harder they fall, as financial market pendulum swings back

Big reversals in first tranche of financial accounts, as Covid-era investment gains turn into losses

Covid recovery at two-year campuses tied to gains among older students and high school dual programmes, but challenges still await

Jason Wingard agrees to leave after less than two years in charge

Irene Tracey warns that ‘everybody is suffering’ under the current model

Hate campaign directed towards America’s chief pandemic scientist makes it harder to find permanent leader for world’s biggest research funder

In the absence of domestic fee hikes and full-cost grants, world-class facilities will help maintain international student flows, says Ian Walmsley

No policy initiative within research-intensive universities can be sustainable without researchers perceiving clear added value, says Sari Lindblom

Freezing graduate debt and raising repayment thresholds could disadvantage those who never went to university, Australian departments say

All eyes turn to large and poorly funded state system as it considers further cutbacks, providing clues as to how the US will tackle demographic changes

States, which all need a well-trained workforce to thrive, must contribute more to reducing the cost of public higher education, says Nancy Zimpher

Broad agreement on the impacts of loan repayment arrangements, but less agreement on the remedies

Jeremy Hunt uses spring budget aiming to harness potential of R&D to boost economic growth

Institutions ‘can no longer afford’ cross-subsidy for research, says Jenny Higham, leader of UUK review of sector funding

Australian move to deny government subsidies to students who bomb out makes things worse for them, and no better for taxpayers

Move may help minimise the need for compulsory redundancies, acting vice-chancellor claims

Ministerial consultation response says maintenance loans will be extended to cover part-time courses for the first time, but signals that significant impact on degree-level courses is unlikely until 2027