Currently, weak universities do not fail in the way that their poor performance warrants.
But by the same token, chasing a higher fee cap and simultaneously investing in research could take many financially weaker universities to a dangerous financial precipice.
In a meeting, one of Sitze's colleagues, the political theorist Thomas L. Dumm, described the conveyance of MOOCs to weaker universities as "eating our seed corn".
De Montfort University strongly disputes the implication in your article (Moody's predicts gloomy future for weaker universities throughout UK, 25 April) that DMU is a "weaker" regional university which will be one of the "losers" when the cap on student recruitment is removed in the 2015/16 academic year.
For the weaker universities, taking in a lot of foreign students is a sign of desperation: it deters British students, and can prove a volatile source of income.The real reason for the universities' financial woes is the government's failure to pay properly for the jobs it wants the universities to do, such as social engineering.
When it is weak, the university feels that it is the only path to fulfill its technology transfer or the industrialization mission is to set up UREs and make them flourish.
That would have "very serious adverse consequences" on funding and make them financially far weaker than universities in the rest of the UK.
As the market becomes more quality-conscious and more competitive, some of the weaker British universities are likely to find the pickings as thin abroad as they are at home.
It cited weak productivity, higher university fees and a rise in energy bills as prime causes of higher consumer prices.
And the continent's real problems lie in such things as a lack of entrepreneurial spirit, weak links between universities, business and government, an underdeveloped venture-capital industry, a cumbersome patent process and red tape that ties small companies in knots.
Interviews also suggest weak linkages between universities and other ministries and public-sector agencies.
