Event description
The UK’s universities are still described as “world-leading”, yet the sector has rarely looked more troubled.
The target of sending half of young people into higher education has been met, with around 51% now entering by the age of 25. But more than a third of institutions reported a deficit for 2024–25, and that is forecast to rise to four in ten. The share of first-class degrees has climbed from 7% in 1993–94 to 30% today. Meanwhile a 25-year-old graduate in England can easily owe more than £50,000, and only around a third of recent students are expected ever to repay their loans in full.
In The Higher Education Delusion, ten contributors ask what has gone wrong. They examine why the graduate premium has fallen as student numbers have soared, and why the student “loan” is really a badly designed tax that pushes effective marginal rates as high as 71%. They ask how heavily universities now depend on international students, and what that has cost in standards. They question whether research funded partly by student fees adds much to useful knowledge, and they trace how a political monoculture took hold on campus and spread into the wider culture. Finally, they look at how artificial intelligence could sweep away the traditional university, and what might take its place.
The book’s editor, Professor Len Shackleton, will join two of its contributors for a panel discussion on the case for radical reform. To mark the launch of this new book, we would be delighted if you could join us for this free event, open to all.
Speakers
Professor Len Shackleton - Professor of economics at the University of Buckingham and Editorial and Research Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs.
Julian Jessop - Economics Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs
Joanna Williams - Academic and commentator, and a former director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Kent. She is the author of How Woke Won, Women vs Feminism, Academic Freedom in an Age of Conformity and Consuming Higher Education.
Maeve Halligan - Spokesman for the Institute of Economic Affairs and editor of Economic Affairs, the IEA’s Substack. She comments on free speech, women’s rights and the political attitudes of young people, and has written for The Free Press.
More to be announced…
Event details
Wednesday 11 November 2026 at the Institute of Economic Affairs, 2 Lord North Street, London SW1P 3LB.
18:00-18:30 Doors open and welcome
18:30-20:00 Panel discussion
20:00-21:00 Post event reception; refreshments provided