Boom or bust

The IfS predicts that some universities will go bankrupt without a further government bailout

A report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies today concludes that the coronavirus pandemic has put several UK universities at risk of insolvency. In normal times, this prediction from such a respected research institute would come as a shock—but we are not in normal times. As such, today’s IfS dispatch is merely the latest in a long line of grim warnings about the stability of the country’s higher education institutions and their impending downfall as the fallout from Covid-19 continues.

Early in the lockdown, the Office for Budget Responsibility said that education would be hit hardest by the pandemic (singling out universities as the institutions likely to be hardest hit), and a University and College Union poll last month found that one in four university applicants harboured very real concerns that their preferred institution would go bust. Today, the IfS adds its not insignificant analysis to the pot, and the findings will be of real concern to the UK’s vice-chancellors.