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The UK's only independent think tank devoted to higher education.

Universities are boxed in: Is there a way out?

  • 5 June 2025
  • HEPI number Debate Paper 40

UK higher education institutions are increasingly boxed in on six sides:

  • by increasing regulation
  • by rising costs
  • by falling income for each domestic student;
  • by uncertain future demand from international students;
  • by an increasing availability of alternative routes; and
  • by a shrinking population.

In this pacey and timely paper, Professors Diana Beech and André Spicer take a look at the situation and propose some different ways out suitable for the full range of higher education providers.

Without the sort of imaginative thinking outlined here, UK higher education will inevitably lose its place at the forefront of the world’s best university systems.

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