Whether or not universities are at risk of going bust is often talked about like a second-order problem. Sure, it’s sad and all, but is it as serious as a local authority going bankrupt? Is anyone actually going to die if non-Russell Group universities can no longer afford to run humanities degrees? Is it the end of the world for students to leave with 150 grand’s worth of debt, instead of 80?
But then one morning, you wake up and think: enough. Successive governments have been staring an entirely predictable calamity in the face for years, doing nothing about it while ripping off an entire generation with ever greater impunity, then masking that incompetence with casual anti-intellectualism and defeatism. OK, maybe saying that out loud doesn’t do an enormous amount to help students, but not saying it makes your blood boil.
