The government's ideological assault on universities as a public service

By Michael Chessum. The £1bn funding gap that universities face is not an accounting error – it is a calculated attempt to marketise higher education
The Higher Education Policy Institute has announced that the university sector faces a huge funding gap, which will necessitate cuts to student numbers and hikes in loan repayments. For those who have spent the last two years mobilising against fees and privatisation in education, this announcement will not be a revelation – and it is no longer enough to remark, as many commentators have done, that the government has "got its sums wrong". In reality, the £1bn gap in funding that universities now face is part of a broader, and calculated, policy to shrink higher education through a process of chaotic marketisation.