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On a slightly more serious and elaborate note now: the & #39;back-to-classroom& #39; conundrum in UK universities shows full well all the limits&weaknesses of & #39;markets& #39; as vehicles of coordination 1/
one of the first things comparative political economy teaches is that centrally-planned, socialist systems were inefficient in adjusting to contingencies (like food shortages, or environmental crises) 2/
so & #39;markets& #39; were wheeled in to help & #39;adjust& #39; to the challenges posed by the & #39;globalizing& #39;, & #39;accelerating& #39; world. all good so far? great. 3/
in market planning, universities rely on fees from international (overseas) students to adjust for any variation in income from & #39;domestic& #39;, home students; something that became a particularly big question-mark in AY 2020-21 in the UK, because of deferrals, A-levels flop, etc. 4/
(they also rely on & #39;minimizing& #39; risk - i.e. sacking contingent staff, not renewing & #39;unprofitable& #39; programmes, etc., but that& #39;s a separate story) 5/
but because there is *no* authority nor process for central decision-making - not university management, not the state, not the unions - there is no-one who can *take* the decision to shift all teaching online, with full responsibility. 6/
...and, given that & #39;markets& #39; decide, and markets, as we know, are & #39;just& #39; agglomerations of individual preferences, we *cannot* know how the students (pardon, & #39;consumers& #39;) will react. which is why universities have to open campuses, only to shut them down after Covid outbreaks. 7/
in other words, this isn& #39;t an & #39;anomaly& #39; produced by challenges posed by the & #39;unforeseeable& #39; Covid-19 pandemic; it is a logical, expected, and regular consequence of the & #39;just-in-time& #39; delivery of higher education, which has been the dominant model for a while now. 8/
in sum, the inevitable Covid outbreaks on campuses - which is what the UK is almost inevitably marching towards - are not & #39;market failures& #39;; they are how markets are supposed to work. 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤷‍♀️" title="Achselzuckende Frau" aria-label="Emoji: Achselzuckende Frau">9/
Also, none of this is inevitable or surprising; Covid outbreaks are the logical consequence of higher education institutions& #39; prioritizing of one kind of assets (real estate; fee income) over another (academic staff and students). /end
