Over 60 per cent of gambling profits come from just 5 per cent of users, many of whom are at high risk of serious harm, including debt, mental health issues, family breakdown and suicide

I think this is very dangerous thinking even putting aside the local carnage that would ensue.

I’m not saying these are highly likely (the first seems fairly probably) I’m saying it’s high enough that it should be avoided.

I think the government thinks that it’s NBD? Like if anything since those students need places they’d be redistributed to the benefit of other institutions?

I mean maybe not if things play out just right. But the risk of a massive shock is damn high.

1. international students are discouraged; that will hit a lot of instituions!
2. Lenders get nervous…maybe that’s not the worst if no covenants are breeched
3. USS gets hit and covenant support needed

'But skills minister Jacqui Smith (pictured right), whose brief includes higher education, and the Office for Students chief executive Susan Lapworth disputed that a provider was on the brink.

“I do not think that before the end of the year there is an imminent collapse,” Smith said.' 3/3

Yet again, the OfS proving both that it's useless for its core purpose & actively damaging to the sector.

Asked how many institutions have reported less than 30 days funding (statutory obligation), Lapworth says "yes", but cannot find the number, goes searching for it.

here's your headline:

They (OfS) still expect 45% of ALL universities to report a deficit this academic year. They are not accounting for "significant variation" across the system (i.e. different types and sizes of institution).

"this government has now given certainty to the universities about their funding"

NO YOU HAVEN'T, you are LITERALLY raiding the international fees income TOMORROW

This sentence was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre.

I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC. /2