Shrinking classes, changing modules

While headlines focus on redundancies and cuts, the actual impact on students and staff is a little less clear. There are cutbacks, but at what cost?

The first and most obvious sign is in class sizes. One UK lecturer points out that there are very few or even zero students signing up to courses that are set to close once current students graduate. Some estimates put the number of courses shuttered at around 4,000 in the past year alone.

However, at most institutions, the trend is very much bigger class sizes. Professor O’Hara says that the strategy of many UK universities is to “warehouse” students into big seminars and even bigger lectures. At some Russell Group universities, lectures may include up to 300 people, and seminar groups comprise 60-80. According to Professor O’Hara, that fundamentally changes how you teach.

"In the past, you would break into parallel seminar groups with associate lecturers or your colleagues," he explains. "But if you don't have the budget to buy in associate lecturers, the professor or senior lecturer has to do that. And they simply have too much workload to do that. So, the university will cut your research workload to leverage in more teaching — or they will make the class bigger."

This means that three classes comprising 90 students soon become two classes of 45 each. In a 90-minute seminar, the lecturer might talk for 45 minutes before breaking into groups to discuss and report back. But that impacts the learning experience for students.

"It's not the same as a seminar of 20 where you can discuss [more easily],” he says.

As class sizes increase, module choice is decreasing. Previously, Professor O’Hara says, students might have been presented with a selection of eight or nine options. Limited teaching staff is, in turn, limiting options.

The types of modules available are also changing. Whereas students might’ve previously been able to specialise in niche topics, electives on offer are becoming generalised so that more faculty members can teach them.

Because universities have also introduced a “baseline floor” of sign-ups for the course to go ahead, this is squeezing out those niche modules and limiting student choice. "You can't possibly run a medieval manuscripts module, for example, where you need Latin, so you have to just drop it."

Last out? Lights out.

According to the Association of University Directors of Estates’ 2025 Estates Management Report, annual power costs for the entire UK sector came to £978 million last year. This represents a potentially lucrative means to reduce overheads.

Universities are managing their energy bills by reducing the heating hours on campus. Estate maintenance costs are being cut back; that means fewer resources for emergency repairs, less upkeep of green spaces and generally being slower to react to any on-campus faults.

Universities are also getting rid of satellite campuses and moving all of their operations into one almost-super campus. More efficient perhaps, but less enjoyable for students. “You’ll just get more crowding again,” says Professor O’Hara.

There’s even a long Reddit post dedicated to the so-called “cheapening” of the UK student experience. They range from the macro (student contact time falling by 25% over the past decade) to the micro (the library moving from 24/7 to 8am-2am on weekdays and 8am-8pm on weekends) to the hyper-micro (lunches for student workers at open days being cut).

Such cost-cutting is more troubling at a time when a record 262,820 18-year-olds in the UK will start university this month (although the overall proportion of young people going to university has stalled after years of continuous growth). In practice, it means fewer members of staff will be looking after more students.

A manufactured crisis?

Yet nobody can quite agree on the exact reasons for all of these cuts. Universities cite capped domestic tuition fees and shrinking international enrolments, and many undoubtedly face those challenges. But the Russell Group professor disputes the notion that cutbacks are necessary at every uni.

“This is, to some degree, a manufactured crisis,” he argues, pointing out that many of the universities making these cutbacks are not in deficit or apparent financial difficulty. He believes that management are using the wider funding crisis as an excuse to sack staff. “This is the narrative that is being used to sack specific academics in an otherwise somewhat financially healthy organisation.”

According to Professor O’Hara, the “continents-wide” gap between senior management and teaching staff is only making the problem worse. “The way that management talk and faculty talk is completely different,” he says. “They just don't understand each other."

“We have yet to be given any comprehensible explanation,” he says, “but financial statements do not justify [the cuts].”

It’s partly why nobody can agree on the way forward either. Senior management are firing staff and cutting costs; lecturers seem to think that senior management should be the ones departing. Greater financial transparency would certainly be a start, but that alone will not fix the sector’s deep-rooted trust issues.

A way forward

Professor O’Hara highlights the recent wave of mergers as one solution that the Department for Education and Office for Students seem to be pursuing. He also expects to see an emerging tier of “global universities” — like Manchester and Warwick — who will continue to attract students from all around the world. Beyond that, a middle tier of “regional universities” could benefit from the growing number of local students that can’t afford to move away for university.

Whatever the solution, it needs to happen soon. Professor O’Hara points out that the number of 18-year-olds in the UK is predicted to fall sharply after 2030, leading to a 20% reduction over the following decade. This “demographic bust” could lead to a huge drop-off in domestic enrolments, making an alternative funding model a necessity sooner rather than later.

Given the situation, it should come as no surprise to learn that academic morale is low. Those who haven’t left higher education already are planning their escape route. For many UK academics, planning the next stage of their career has become a full-time job in itself. It seems everywhere you look, people are feeling the pinch.

“Many will float along until they’re 60,” says O’Hara. “But then, if they get to 58 or 59, they might just go. Most academics have given so much to a career that they can't go and do something else.”

“Many will just have to take early retirement and say: that's it.”