Universities in England operated surpluses of nearly £1.8 billion last year, as their bank balances were filledby the fist cohort of stuents to pay £9,000.

 

In the last academic year, higher education providers in England spent a combined £25.9bn and took in a total of £27.7bn for a £1.8bn surplus for 2014-15 – well above the £1.1bn recorded each year in 2013-14 and 2012-13.

 

According to the Hesa figures, Oxford topped the premier league of universities with a surplus of £191m, while Scotland’s institutions combined for a total surplus worth £166m, of which about £100m belonged to the balance sheets on Glasgow and Edinburgh universities.

 

While the tuition fee increase has been a boon for conventional universities, the Open University’s combination of distance learning and part-time study has lost its attraction.

 

 

Gordon Marsden, Labour’s shadow minister for higher education and a former Open University tutor, said: “The Open University announcement merely underlines the very fragile and worrying situation for lifelong learning in general and part-time higher education learning in particular.

“Drops in student numbers and the Open University’s losses are simply further evidence of the neglect and dire straits currently facing adult and part-time learners in higher education.”