England’s universities still waiting for help to stop slow-motion financial crisis

Since 2012, when annual tuition fees were hiked to £9,000 for each domestic undergraduate, they have barely risen in the 12 years since. Photograph: Cultura RM Exclusive/Peter Muller/Getty Images/Image Source

The “false dawn” is a staple of Hollywood thrillers: where the main characters think they have escaped their nemesis, only to discover they are in more peril than ever.

So it is for England’s universities. Having slogged through years of frozen tuition fees and lashings from Conservative ministers about “bums on seats”, grade inflation and “low-value” degrees, last month’s general election raised hopes that the worst was over. But the plot twist for England’s vice-chancellors is that there is still another mountain to climb.