The bumpy road ahead

Changes to accounting rules will hit the ability of universities to borrow money, writes Alison Goddard.

A small number of institutions hold most of the financial reserves and the cost of borrowing will soar once universities are forced to acknowledge their pension liabilities, according to a report published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. We have an article, available only to subscribers to HE, which predicts that some universities will struggle to survive.

The Financial Times today has an article which (£) examines self-regard among well-established companies and targets the University of Oxford as being at risk from competition from more innovative organisations. It states: "Oxford university is a classic case of a complacent establishment that is refusing to reinvent itself. It will consequently find life much harder in the 21st century. Britain’s finest educational name has shunned the entire academy school movement, ignores the explosion in online learning and fails dismally to exploit its intellectual property commercially. It has been captured by insiders, too many of whom teach degree courses for the old world. It lives off past glories, and is doomed to fade unless it reforms vigorously."