Year end

How have universities fared financially during the pandemic?

The financial year for most UK universities runs to the end of July, meaning we will soon begin to get a clearer picture about the extent to which Covid-19 has affected institutional balance sheets.

When prime minister Boris Johnson announced the first lockdown, back on 23 March 2020, universities had to scramble to deal with the immediate implications of a rapid switch to online teaching and heavy restrictions on access to research facilities. At the same time, the financial implications for institutions were already causing alarm. UK higher education is an inherently international operation—meaning restrictions on international travel were expected to hit hard. This, coupled with an unclear domestic student recruitment picture, had higher education reeling.