Coronavirus has triggered a financial crisis in universities that will upend student life, change the face of education, distort priorities for scientific research and damage local economies, according to economists and education experts.
Tuition fees – currently capped at £9,250 a year in England – are universities’ primary source of income, yet “they have no idea how many of the class of 2020 will show up in September”, says The Times. Reflecting the widespread mood, one 18-year-old told the newspaper that he would “prefer to have a gap year badly disrupted than my first year at university”.
Indeed, “a fifth of prospective students say they may defer their studies for a year”, creating a “potential £760m funding black hole”, the Daily Mail reports.
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