The financial pressures facing UK higher education have reached a point where we need to ask a more fundamental question: is the problem simply that universities need more money, or does the university operating model itself need to change?
The latest evidence suggests that this is no longer a question we can avoid. The Office for Students continues to identify significant financial pressures across the sector, while the House of Commons Education Committee has warned about the risks of institutional insolvency. Universities are responding through course closures, restructuring, staff reductions, estate reviews and greater collaboration.
But perhaps we should stop asking how to save the existing model and start asking what a sustainable university should look like in 2035.
I propose a concept I call .
A campus that works all year
The traditional university is largely organised around an academic year. Students arrive in September, teaching takes place during the main academic periods, assessments follow, and campus activity reduces significantly during holiday periods. Yet universities own and operate expensive classrooms, laboratories, libraries, accommodation and other facilities throughout the year.
Why should these assets be used primarily around a nine- or ten-month academic cycle?
A University 365 model would treat the campus as a year-round education, research, enterprise and community ecosystem. During the traditional academic year, it would deliver undergraduate and postgraduate education. During the summer, the same facilities could support international summer schools, executive education, professional development, corporate training and short courses. Evenings and weekends could support apprenticeships, continuing professional education and lifelong learning.
The building does not need to change. The way we use it does.
This could also change how we think about students. Universities should not be places that people visit once between the ages of 18 and 24. They should become lifelong learning partners. A graduate might return at 30 for a professional qualification, at 38 for leadership development and later for an intensive programme on artificial intelligence or digital transformation.
This would provide universities with additional income while responding to a genuine economic need: workers increasingly need to reskill throughout their careers.
International education should also remain important, but universities should reduce their dependence on any single recruitment market or three-year degree model. International summer schools, short professional programmes, executive education, joint degrees, transnational education and blended provision could create a much broader international education portfolio.
Sharing infrastructure, rethinking the workforce
The development of London-based university campuses also offers an interesting lesson. Universities do not necessarily need to own and operate every element of their infrastructure independently. Carefully governed public–private partnerships could allow universities to share premises, technology, facilities and operational expertise while retaining full responsibility for academic standards, curriculum, assessment and quality assurance.
This should not mean outsourcing academic responsibility. Academic integrity must remain with the university. But operational flexibility can be increased.
We also need to rethink the university workforce. The answer to financial pressure should not simply be indiscriminate reductions in academic staff. Instead, universities should examine which activities genuinely require specialist academic expertise and which administrative processes can be consolidated, shared or automated.
Artificial intelligence can help with routine administration, student enquiries, data analysis, timetabling and workflow management. The principle should be simple: automate administration before we automate relationships. Students still need academics, advisers and human support.
This also raises the question of campus presence. Flexible working has benefits, but a student-facing university must remain accessible. The question should not be whether every academic works on campus every day. It should be: where does the student need the university to be?
Universities should provide stronger physical access to academic advising, careers, finance, learning support, international services and other student-facing functions.
From isolated estates to regional ecosystems
There is also a regional opportunity. Universities could work more closely with further education colleges, employers, NHS organisations, local authorities and professional bodies. Shared laboratories, libraries, accommodation, lecture theatres and specialist facilities could create regional education ecosystems rather than isolated institutional estates.
Government could support this through Higher Education Enterprise Zones, encouraging universities and their regional partners to collaborate around skills, innovation, research, lifelong learning and economic development.
Crucially, Government intervention should focus on transformation rather than simply rescue. A University Transformation Fund could support institutions willing to redesign estates, develop lifelong learning, introduce responsible AI, create employer partnerships and share infrastructure.
The objective is not to make universities more commercial for the sake of commercialisation. It is to make them more financially resilient so that they can continue delivering education, research and social value.
The UK has built one of the world’s most respected higher education systems. We should not respond to the current crisis simply through another cycle of fee increases, redundancies, course closures and emergency funding.
We should ask a bigger question:
What kind of university do we want the UK to have in 2035?
Perhaps it is a university that operates throughout the year, welcomes learners of all ages, works closely with employers, uses its buildings more intelligently, diversifies its income, embraces technology while protecting human relationships and contributes directly to regional economic development.
That is the idea behind .
The UK may not need fewer universities.
It may need a different university model.
By Afzal Sayed Munna, Senior Lecturer and Accreditation Lead, University of Hull London