Shreya Sinha

Long post, sorry. But I swear, one of the disorders of this island is that whenever we do something well, we destroy it to appease an imagined reactionary swing voter in about 20 constituencies. We do universities well. Genuinely, world-beatingly as a sector. So naturally we're dismantling them — because "migrants," "foreigners," and "Mickey Mouse degrees." While ignoring entirely that the sector: 1. Redistributes wealth around the country as students move between regions. 2. Delivers a massive net benefit through R&D 3. Anchors local economies — in half our towns, the university is the economy 3. Is one of our biggest export industries, with international students bringing in billions 5. Trains the doctors, nurses, and teachers as well as producing an educated population, in general. 6. Remains one of the few engines of social mobility we have left 7. Generates the spin-outs and startups every government has claimed it wants more of 8. Is among the last sources of British soft power that still commands global respect 9. And is a GOOD in and of itself, builds lifelong friendships, improves social cohesion, exposes young people to different ways of life and living. The most formative experience in many peoples' lives. And they're not being destroyed, for the most part, by the sector itself, but by stupid decision after stupid decision by the government around how to run and fund them. It is a genuine catastrophe, tanking our last stellar industry. But instead of even reporting on the broader impacts this will all have, the university is just castigated as some fortress in the culture war.