Policy

UK DfE forms higher education restructuring regime and warns universities could be allowed to fail

The UK government has established a “restructuring regime” to review the impact of Covid-19 on universities’ finances and decide on a case-by-case basis whether to provide bailouts.

In a document published on 16 July by the Department for Education, the government stressed that “the regime does not represent a taxpayer-funded bailout” as “it is not a guarantee that no organisation will fail”.

It is perhaps the clearest statement by the government since universities warned in April of the need for a sector-wide bailout that the state will not guarantee the future of every institution.

Instead, the Higher Education The US government U-turned on a plan to eject international students from the country if university courses were online-only next year, after sparking backlash from dozens of colleges and businesses.

The judge overseeing a lawsuit tabled by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Saudi Arabia’s education minister has said his department is working on plans to attract investors to develop boarding schools and institutions for children with special educational needs in the kingdom.

The General Department for International and Foreign Schools will sit within Saudi Arabia’s Private Education Agency and aims to support investors in the Restructuring Regime is designed “to support providers in England who are at risk of market exit due to the challenges of Covid-19”.

A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that 13 unnamed universities were facing insolvency.

Higher education providers approaching the DfE for loans will be “considered on a case-by-case basis, to ensure that there is a sound economic case for government intervention”.

Loans from the public purse to support restructuring would be “a last resort”.

The DfE noted that the “majority of providers” will not require the regime’s support, “but will Technology that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement would revert to its earlier guidance and permit foreign students to remain, even if their degrees are wholly virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The move came a week after the prominent US universities took legal sector and develop governance, including working procedures, said Dr Hamad bin Mohammed AlAsheikh, according to Arab News.

The country’s Education Ministry will remain the sole authority for issuing licences and providing consultations around foreign education.

Al-Asheikh said that the ministry will provide support to enhance investment in Saudi Arabia’s nevertheless be looking to undergo their own restructuring to ensure that are better suited for the postCovid world” – suggesting a spate of financial overhauls loom on the horizon.

The government’s position crystallises reports earlier this year that the Treasury was opposed to granting the higher education sector an outright bailout, despite a potential multibillion-pound blackhole in university balance sheets caused mainly by a fall in international enrolments.

“Where it is needed, the Restructuring Regime will provide support to individual providers that are trying to head off financial failure and, when a case is made action to block new rules created by the Trump administration that would deport international students, or force them to transfer schools with physical teaching, if their course instruction was online-only in the next academic year.

The controversial policy change prompted criticism from US education sector and increase the number of international schools “in a way that enhances our educational outcomes”. for public funding, we will provide support in a way that ensures it can emerge strongly from the challenges Covid-19 has brought, ready to make a valuable contribution to addressing our country’s future needs,” the document states.

The DfE set three “clear and overarching objectives” that will guide assessments of cash-strapped providers.

These are: protecting the welfare of students; preserving the sector’s internationally outstanding science base; and supporting the role that higher education providers play in regional and local economies through the provision of highquality courses aligned with

US government drops controversial threat to eject international students taking online-only courses

economic and societal needs. universities, business groups and large organisations, many of which, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft, filed briefs in support of Harvard and MIT’s lawsuit.

Attorney generals representing 18 states and the District of Columbia also filed two lawsuits

Saudi Arabian government wants private investors to expand SEN and boarding provision

in a bid to block the rule.

He added that it will reconsider the rules and regulations governing the establishment of private educational institutions.