We return to the question of whether universities can survive with an exploration of the roots of the current crisis facing UK universities and their prospects for recovery. David talks to the writer and education policy expert Sam Freedman about how UK universities got into this mess and what might come next. Did universities expand too far and too fast? Why did their leaders not foresee the risks they were running? Can the university model accommodate the new demands being made of it? What is the USP of the university in the 21st century and how should it be maintained?

Sam Freedman writes about politics (and sometimes about education) on his (and his father Lawrence Freedman’s) Substack: Comment is Freed ⁠⁠https://samf.substack.com/⁠⁠

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Next Time in Can Universities Survive? When to Get Out w/Kathleen Stock

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