After being on leave for most of last week, though I worked for most of the week, I also took a few days leave.

I was in the office on Tuesday and during my lunchtime walk I went pass our old offices at Castle Park. The block has been surrounded by scaffolding for what seemed like a really long time. They have renamed the building BLOK. What I found quite interesting was the addition of a café on the ground floor. I can imagine if we had remained in that building that myself and others would have probably drank a lot of coffee there.

It is looking like that the university cash crisis to get worse despite tuition fee rise. This week the OfS published a report on the financial sustainability of the higher education sector. Despite earlier positive perspective of an improved outlook, the new report notes

Our analysis of recruitment trends suggested that providers’ financial forecasts were based on predictions of student recruitment that were too optimistic.

The OfS notes that bold and transformative action is needed to address financial sustainability of the sector.

Many providers will need to take increasingly bold action to address the impact of these challenges on their financial position in the short, medium and long terms. Where necessary, providers will need to prepare for, and deliver in practice, the transformation needed to address the challenges they face. In some cases, this is likely to include looking externally for solutions to secure their financial future, including working with other organisations to reduce costs or identifying potential merger partners or other structural changes. We recognise that cultural and other barriers in the sector may deter institutions from considering some of these options, and so it is important that options are identified and evaluated with sufficient time for action to be taken.

The action required by the sector is one of the core reasons why Jisc with KPMG published a report on collaboration.

Even with the rise in tuition fees, the increase in employer national insurance will negate much of that benefit. We also know that the impact on the sector varies, some institutions will be able to weather the storm better than others. As the OfS says bold action is needed. This is a time to think differently.

The news  story was also reported on the BBC

Almost three quarters of universities in England will face financial problems next year – despite tuition fees increasing, the BBC has been told.

David Kernohan on WonkHE has written an in-depth piece on the report which makes for interesting reading.

At the end of the week I was reminded of this speech by John F Kennedy.

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.

I was involved in a webinar with senior managers from across higher education discussing the report we have just published with KPMG.

One participant remarked that collaboration and shared services in some entrenched areas of higher education was hard and that we may, as a sector, might want to focus on areas which are new or easier.

I do think that, just because it is hard, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look at some areas. There are very likely benefits that go beyond that area as well.