I say this because university managers have collectively agreed there are precisely three available responses to any challenge: 1) make redundancies, 2) build something (anything that’s not classrooms or office space), and 3) raise international recruitment targets and ask staff to figure it out.

Like, if you wanted evidence of Larry Summers' terrible judgement, you had already had 40 years of his stated positions on the things he's supposed to be an expert about. The specific new thing the emails show he's unsuited for is the one job he's keeping.

Emphatically not... There's a bit of handwaving about 'well, we *are* in surplus, but not by *that* much, and we have to pay increased NI contributions soon, and someone floated the idea of a levy in international students'.

Just straight up ‘we are willing to wager that new buildings are more important to the operation and reputation of the University than having enough staff to actually teach the students they’re supposed to help recruit’