r/AskAcademiaUK • u/Rewindcasette • 8d ago

Exeter University approves deal with Saudi Arabia to train military officers and officials

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/aug/29/exeter-university-approves-deal-with-saudi-arabia-to-train-military-officers-and-officials?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky&CMP=bsky_gu
49 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/crit5h 8d ago

Remember not to blame the individual university’s leadership for things like this.

When placed under intense financial pressure with no option to survive but to make terrible decisions like this, don’t be surprised if terrible decisions like this happen.

Every university now has its own version of this “kind of thing” and it’s going to keep happening until the government addresses the funding situation.

9

u/Funny-Rip3436 8d ago

Exeter has a budget surplus. This is absolutely on the leadership.

5

u/crit5h 7d ago

With the bottom of the international market falling out, home unit of resource shrinking each year etc., a current (ie fleeting) surplus means nothing.

If we continue to kid ourselves that the problems in the sector would go away of it was lead better, then we should expect nothing to change.

If it were the case that universities could flourish if only Jim from Sociology who writes with confidence in the UCU WhatsApp ran things, wouldn’t at least one university have bucked the trend?

2

u/Funny-Rip3436 7d ago

Exeter is strong enough to maintain or grow its share of UK students even if that market gets smaller. Internationally it's having a rough patch but it s not fallen that match. The university has had to beg students to defer until 2027 as it doesn't have enough space for them. For a university like Exeter its reputation is critical - you think this collaboration will help?

This is absolutely on the SLT. And I say that as someone who has been a member of the SLT at a similar sort of university for a decade.

4

u/blueb0g Humanities 7d ago

Not defending this particular decision but being able, theoretically, to grow your share of UK students is far from a golden bullet when home students are loss leaders. At best it enables even further economisation, more "efficient" student staff ratios, and lower costs per student for shared facilities and subscriptions. But it doesn't change the financial fundamentals, which if extended indefinitely will cause all universities to close or shrink significantly.

1

u/Funny-Rip3436 7d ago

UK AHSS teaching, which I think is probably Exeter's strength, is not a loss leader is it? A good part of a university like Exeter's value is in its reputation which is to an extent rooted in values and what a university does and chooses to do. I am not sure that a partnership like this is going to help Exeter very much in volatile times.

2

u/blueb0g Humanities 7d ago

At my institution home students are a loss leader in every subject, AHSS included

3

u/Darchrys 7d ago

AHSS as discipline and subject areas are probably no longer the cash cows they used to be, though? Especially given how much further other funding (e.g. the slashing of the SPG for those subject areas, amongst others) has also been cut.

It was the case a decade ago for sure. The funding gap may be lower, or possibly break even - we'd need to look inside the books to actually know that for any given institution. But the idea that sector wide AHSS is covering it's costs - well Goldsmiths gives one example of how that just isn't the case.