Higher Education: Government Support

Bayo Alaba Excerpts

Monday 12th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bayo Alaba (Southend East and Rochford) (Lab)]

I am pleased to have secured this debate on Government support for higher education. The UK is home to some of the world’s most respected universities and we all benefit from the opportunities, knowledge and growth they create—whether it is for young people pursuing exciting academic ambitions, members of staff supporting students through their studies or small businesses capitalising on the busy trade of a university city, the value of our higher education institutions is undeniable.

In my constituency, residents have enjoyed the opportunities for social mobility and the economic contributions of the University of Essex’s campus in Southend for the past 18 years. During that time, thousands of students have graduated, going on to fuel regional and national economies and finding fulfilling careers in the process. The university’s nursing, midwifery, dental hygiene and social care courses are particularly popular and often oversubscribed. Many of those enrolled grew up in south Essex and go on to work within the area after graduating. The campus is also a major employer of residents, some of whom have worked across catering, student support services and teaching for almost two decades. However, that is soon set to end.

Just before Christmas, the University of Essex announced that it would be closing its Southend campus this summer, throwing the futures of the 1,000 enrolled students into uncertainty and putting 400 jobs at risk. The proposed closure will see a direct loss of £101 million from the city’s economy.

In the wake of the announcement, I have spoken with dozens of staff, students and stakeholders impacted by this decision. I have heard from students like Lulu, a first-year marketing student who was just two months into her course when she was informed of the closure. Lulu describes herself as

“a bright individual who has always enjoyed studying and does not want her educational journey to end”.

There are also stories of dedicated student support staff like Judy, who has worked in the campus accommodation department for the past eight years and now faces the devastating prospect of redundancy.

I have spoken with internationally headhunted lecturers, many of whom came to the UK on skilled worker visas, which could be revoked if their roles disappear. I met one Brazilian lecturer who spoke about the impending impact of the threat of compulsory emigration on her young family. If her job was lost, she would have just 60 days to leave the country. To her, the threat of deportation is a frightening reality.

The Forum, Southend’s central library and a well-used community hub, could also be at risk following the closure of the campus.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate. I spoke to him beforehand to get the thrust of his comments. Does he agree that universities must cut domestic undergraduate numbers to absorb funding cuts, limiting local access to higher education, which is exacerbating the existing trend of young people leaving university across the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, depriving the economy of skilled graduates? That cannot be allowed to continue if we are to reap the benefits of our first-class education system for future employees and workers.

[Mr Alaba]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his contribution and welcome his comments. Indeed, the business model that a lot of universities have used over the past 14 years has meant that they have focused on international students, which is one of the reasons that we are having this debate.

Passionate staff fear that if the university’s share of the Forum library is sold, the result would be significant financial pressure on the remaining partners. They understandably fear the knock-on impacts of the campus closure.

East 15, one of the UK’s leading performing arts schools, is set to cut its Southend courses as a result of the closure. Students training with East 15 contribute to the cultural character of the city long after they have graduated, providing Southend with links to arts and entertainment industries further afield. I share residents’ pride in the success of talented Southend East 15 alumni, such as the comedian Maisie Adam. There are also significant concerns that the suggestion that 800 students can relocate to the university’s main campus in Colchester has been overstated. What’s more, following dialogue with staff and students, the suggestion that 200 students will be unable to complete their courses at all appears to be an underestimation.

This is simply not good enough. I am working with the leader of Southend council, Councillor Daniel Cowan, and my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West and Leigh (David Burton-Sampson) to ensure that if an alternative provider can be found for courses not available in Colchester, students will be able to complete their studies in Southend. Can the Minister provide any reassurance to these students, who rightly feel confused and concerned about the future of their studies?

While questions remain unanswered about the university’s decision making and communication in the lead-up to the announcement, the planned closure is not an isolated event but a devastating symptom of 14 years of under-investment in higher education by the previous Conservative Government, which left universities and colleges across the country struggling to stay afloat. That Government slashed direct teaching grants for universities, making tuition fees the primary source of income for institutions. At the same time, they capped tuition fees, leading to an unsustainable business model that saw income tied to an ever-increasing number of enrolled students. The impact of that cannot be ignored.

Elsewhere in the UK, the University of Nottingham is planning for job losses of 350 staff members, the University of Strathclyde is looking for £35 million in savings, and the University of Edinburgh is set to move towards a sweep of compulsory redundancies.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am devastated to hear of the situation in Southend. In York, financial pressures are also prevalent. It is very clear that the financial model is failing. This is impacted by not only the resourcing that universities are able to generate but the change to international student visas. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government need to undertake a complete review of higher education funding and ensure that the model works, in order to invest not only in education but in our local economy?

[Mr Alaba]

Yes, I do agree. We need to look at the business model and make sure that it is sustainable, certainly when it comes to higher education, which is a huge and significant asset of our country. We need to future-proof it, so I welcome my hon. Friend’s comments.

[Pam Cox (Colchester) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. I share his concern about the impact of the closure in Southend, which is a community that I know very well. Does he agree that the community in Colchester will also be hard hit by the situation, with a number of redundancies in and around that campus too?

[Mr Alaba]

Absolutely; this closure affects the community in Southend and in Colchester. Four hundred members of staff will be made redundant across both campuses. Another consequence is the uncertainty that this is causing the student community, the staff and the whole wraparound community that supports the institution.

I welcome the Government’s actions to support students and universities financially, including through an inflation-based increase to both maintenance loans and tuition fees.

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

I am also desperately sad to hear the news, as a former student of the University of Essex. It gave me the platform to get here and speak today. On the subject of student loans, I have Doncaster Sheffield airport in my constituency, and at the moment, those who want to do a formal course to become a pilot cannot access student loans. It is really difficult for people in an area like mine, with great deprivation and many disadvantaged students, to fulfil their ambition to become a pilot. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to look at future courses, and at how we support and fund students to do those too?

[Mr Alaba]

I thank my hon. Friend for his contribution, and I agree. I have met members of the aviation community. In my constituency, we have London Southend airport, so I have met its senior leadership team, who have expressed the need to get more talent—to get more pilots through. That is hard, and it is prohibitively expensive for people from particular socioeconomic backgrounds. More work needs to be done to enable people from all backgrounds to access all courses and career opportunities.

It is encouraging to see the efforts being made to help our world-leading higher education institutions work with industry partners to capitalise on the research they produce. On that note, I am hopeful that the £30 million of funding recently awarded to universities and research experts will incubate growth and create jobs for the future. Those measures, paired with rejoining the Erasmus study scheme, are expected to deliver a brighter financial outlook for our universities following more than a decade of underfunding.

Given the scale of the challenge facing higher education providers, I urge the Government to continue exploring additional support. Although I am focusing on Southend, it is vital that we acknowledge and address the increasing pressures emerging across the nation. There are things that we can learn from our international counterparts, where close ties between institutions and industry have often given rise to pioneering companies. These relationships not only fuel innovation but offer universities a reliable source of income that can shield their success from unpredictable financial pressures. We have the talent to do the same here, and we should support universities in commercialising their intellectual property through public investment and by encouraging private backing.

Although I welcome this Government’s plans to streamline the Intellectual Property Office, I hope that universities and other higher education providers will be given adequate thought when carrying out those reforms. Beyond IP and investment, we should be supporting students to build industry connections during their time at university by offering a year’s work placement on every course and skill-building discovery modules. It is also worth expanding the investigation of the university grant reintroduction to reduce over-reliance on finding an ever-increasing number of international students.

As I have acknowledged, universities offer far more than research and economic growth, and any plan for support must be accompanied by engagement with the wider community. The issues posed by the planned closure of the University of Essex’s Southend campus continue to evolve and develop. I thank the residents who have been in contact with me in recent weeks to share their stories; I share their very real concerns.

I am also grateful for the support from unions such as Unison and the University and College Union on this matter. Unison recently launched its “Stop the Cuts” campaign in the hope of keeping the campus open and avoiding compulsory redundancies across Essex University. My colleagues and I are committed to continuing to push the senior leadership team to achieve a solution that works for staff, students and the whole of Southend. Will the Minister speak to how the Government are supporting higher education providers across the UK to prevent situations similar to that facing the University of Essex in Southend?