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The head of the University and College Union, Jo Grady, has warned that universities face a financial calamity similar to the 2008 banking crisis, accusing the government of being “asleep at the wheel”.
Grady, who took over as the union’s general secretary in 2019, is alarmed by the direction politics is taking in the UK, telling PoliticsHome that universities will be “in the firing line of Reform should they be elected”, and warning that leader Nigel Farage, whose party is leading in the polls, is laying the groundwork for attacking and closing institutions.
In response, Reform UK said that Grady was “absolutely right” that the party would “combat the educational institutions in this country that are poisoning the minds of our children”.
When it entered office in July 2024, the Labour government inherited a higher education sector under severe financial strain, with many institutions making course and staff cuts in a bid to balance the books.
Restrictions on international student visas introduced by the previous Conservative government contributed to the pressures. PoliticsHome analysis earlier this year found that some universities had seen income from overseas students drop by as much as £10m year-on-year. This Labour administration announced more visa restrictions in May and is considering further action as part of its bid to reduce overall net migration, despite warnings about potential damage to university finances.
At the same time, UCU members are preparing to vote on whether to take nationwide strike action over a 1.4 per cent pay offer.
The government has decided to raise tuition fees for the first time since 2017 as a way of alleviating the financial pressures facing universities.
Meanwhile, the Department for Education is expected to publish its long-awaited Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy White Paper in the coming weeks, which is set to include higher education reforms. There is concern within the sector, however, that the proposals won’t be bold enough to tackle the challenges facing universities.
In an interview with PoliticsHome, Grady said the idea that universities are “autonomous”, a word used by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, now “doesn’t wash”.
“This idea that the government can and does just say they’re autonomous is ridiculous.”
Grady told PoliticsHome that she sympathises with ministers who faced a very difficult situation when they entered power last year, but is disappointed that they have not done more to help the higher education sector since being in office. According to UCU analysis, universities have cut 4,000 courses and 15,000 jobs in the past year.
“It’s very similar to the banking crisis in 2008… The people who should be either governing from government or governing institutions are asleep at the wheel,” she said.
A DfE spokesperson told PoliticsHome: “While universities are independent institutions, this government took the tough but necessary decision to increase tuition fees in line with inflation to put universities on a secure financial footing.
“We are using money raised through the international students levy to break down barriers to opportunity, introducing targeted maintenance grants for disadvantaged students.
“Our Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper will soon set out further ambitious reforms, fixing the foundations of higher education to deliver change for students.”
Grady is also concerned that universities will become a growing target for Reform UK if they are allowed to become seen as failing institutions.
“It will be another part of the patchwork of culture war rhetoric that Reform will use…
“They want to denigrate [universities], so that when they attack them and close them down, it’s seemingly supported,” she told PoliticsHome.
Lee Anderson, Reform MP and the party’s whip, said the union boss “is absolutely right”.
“We will be doing something to combat the educational institutions in this country that are poisoning the minds of our children, preaching false history, and driving them to hate their country.
“We need an education system free from woke ideology, political agendas, and guilt. Children must be taught the objective facts about history, maths, science, and literature, not bogged down by the political views of their professors.”
Reform’s chairman Zia Yusuf told PoliticsHome at the party’s annual conference in September that UK universities are “indoctrination camps”.
Grady lamented the attacks facing universities worldwide as well as at home.
Shortly after returning to the White House, President Donald Trump cut funding for universities with diversity practices and made it harder for overseas students to secure visas to study in the US. The number of international students who arrived in the US in August this year was down by a fifth compared with the same period in 2024, according to preliminary US government data published this week.
Grady said leaders like Trump carry out these attacks “because they know the power of education” and the inconvenience of producing critical thinkers “that will continue to challenge” their messages.
It should “terrify people”, she said, adding that “it is, for anyone who has studied history, a real play card of fascism, of really right-wing people.”
Back in the UK, when Phillipson became education secretary in July 2024, she paused the implementation of the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act, which aimed to protect free speech on university campuses, before later reintroducing a stripped-back version.
Grady argues that the legislation should never have been introduced in the first place, referring to clashes with the previous Conservative government over its introduction.
“This manufacturing of a crisis of free speech serves the political far right in a very global way,” Grady told PoliticsHome, arguing that while Labour has tried to strike a balance, “I’m not sure sitting on the fence does you any favours”.
