In this new Policy Note, Rachel Hewitt, HEPI Director of Policy and Advocacy, reports on the results of a new poll on of students on their views on what should happen to universities in financial difficulty.
Key points:
- most students (83%) are confident their own institution is in a strong financial position;
- over three-quarters of students (77%) believe government should step in if their university were threatened with closure;
- more than half of students (51%) think fees should be refunded in the event of their university closing, while only one-third (32%) back merger with another institution;
- nearly all students (97%) want to know if their university is in financial difficulty – in contrast with current practice which hides financial problems from students;
- most students (84%) say they would have been less likely to have applied to their university if they had known it was in financial difficulty; and
- the overwhelming majority of students (89%) do not know what Student Protection Plans are, while even more have not seen their own university’s Plan (93%).