(Some courses cut to a half-inch).
The government's "area reviews" will result in colleges merged, courses cut and huge job losses.
Separate reforms to universities will see tuition fees treble and funding for humanities courses cut.
Since then, there have been many changes at universities, with courses cut and long-serving academic staff replaced with conservative loyalists.
The scariness, of course, cuts both ways.
None of this, of course, cuts any ice with our hysterical tabloids or our political masters.
It will mean staff cuts, course cuts and cuts in student numbers – though it is unlikely to mean a university being forced to close.
"Of course, cuts resonate more with women because women are the people who deal with public services and they see first how they are cut.
There are of course cuts right across the public services, and nobody is under any illusions about where the public's sympathy will lie.
The bombshell course cuts at London Metropolitan University where I am doing a part-time furniture-making degree are having unexpected repercussions.
