The Fountain of Plenty

Today The Guardian reports that universities expect to tighten belts even further in the forthcoming years, is the continuation of a worrying trend. Labour's appears to have accomplished their 1997 promise of "Education, Education, Education" yet I cannot help but feel that the quality of education has diminished considerably.

As a nation on paper we seem better educated than we have ever been, more of us are now achieving degrees, A-levels and GCSEs than ever, and as a result resources are now spread more thinly than they have ever been. Top institutes have resorted to finding financing elsewhere, frequently in the form of generous donors and wealthy international students. My university, Imperial College London in particular, has benefitted from noughties boom and industry’s funding. So at the end of the decade we find ourselves in the favourable position where three of the world’s top five universities are British. However all good things had to come to an end, the bankers our universities worked so hard to produce drove the world into economic meltdown, and this fountain of plenty has dried up.

Now of all times, it is critical for us to be supporting our top institutes, producing the cutting edge work, the Nobel Laureates and the solutions to our global problems. For now let’s forget political correctness, equality and fairness. Ditch the talk of underprivileged to Oxbridge, the 50% of the population to university, and the Mickey Mouse Degrees (and universities). For the sake of our nation, let’s make a few sacrifices for our universties. If we don’t in by the end of this decade we will definitely find ourselves a second rate country.