Quote Originally Posted by stevo View Post
As someone who works for a university, I'm very keen to hear an answer to that question.
Fundamentally I think universities have lost their raison d'etre, which is to educate, inform, inspire etc the future generations of this country, primarily. I think with hindsight it was a mistake changing poytechnics to universities, as they provided vital skills to primarily local people and helped with upskilling people for jobs etc. It's no great surprise that a decade or two after they closed we suddenly don't have the skills in many typically working class industries and have to rely on others.

For our traditional universities, I think they have grown too large, become too dominant in local cities, creating significant distortion in housing markets, whilst financially becoming dependent on foreign students (understandably given the fees) which is a pretty unsustainable model in the long term, which I think is happening now.

So yeah, id rather see the purpose of universities change, and whilst I don't wish any to close, I think it's likely as the model is unsustainable