Is government going to step up & support the HE sector financially then? B/c for those unis that aren't Oxbridge/RG/receiving hefty research grants, reducing fees & refunding accommodation will end them. Literally. Bankrupt, closed doors, laid off staff - no tuition at all. https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/status/1309807493300842496

Do I feel sorry for students paying £9k and not at all receiving the uni experience they expected? Yes, I do, wholeheartedly. They've been screwed by the A-level fiasco and they're being screwed now. But the blame can't entirely be laid at the door of universities.

Who removed all government funding and moved the burden of the cost of higher education entirely onto the shoulders of students? Who raised the interest rates on student loans? Who removed the cap on student numbers to make unis compete for students?

Who insisted that schools and colleges and universities reopen and that it was safe to do so? Who hasn't made any funding available for universities that are in fact teaching universities and not in receipt of large amounts of research funding?

Who hasn't put a reliable and (I'll borrow their own term) robust testing and tracking system in place? Who didn't see the rise in demand in testing coming in September, when literally ANYONE who works in education could have, and indeed did, predict it?

What we're seeing now is the result of a lot of bad decisions made by government over the years, that have been spiralling down into catastrophe, & now we're reaping the whirlwind. This could have been avoided if HE had been treated by government as a public good & not a business

Staff at universities have been busting a gut to try & support students through this & have been coming up with genuinely innovative and engaging material supported by extensive online resources - software, learning & research materials, infrastructure - none of which is cheap!

(Seriously, ask me about the cost of ebooks sometime - your eyes will fall out of your sockets.) Do you think we stop paying for all those resources just because students aren't on campus? It becomes even more important, which means more expensive, not less...

Is a lecture delivered online less enjoyable than one delivered in a lecture hall? Probably. Will students learn less? Well, that's up to them. What they're paying for is that opportunity to learn, that access, those resources, that support. And that's all still there.

The shiny facilities, social life, clubs and societies go hand in hand with university life, but it's not the point of it. It's a parallel experience, and for some, yes, it's every bit as important. But it's not what students are there for, and it's not what they're paying for.