Dr Paul Davis

I'm asking everybody to consider that if the business model is flawed, rather than see the institutions make a rash decision in October, November that damages the learning, to think about how we could do it upfront.

Because that's the key part here.

We can plan for this.

We did extremely well with COVID, but we reacted in.

This is not about a reaction.

This is about planning our education systems.

Well, here's the catch.

The government has already paid £550 million out in funding in terms of short-term funding for fuel.

We know that they're hoping that this will all be resolved, but we know that there's an impact on cost of fuel that's going to continue over probably the next five to six weeks at least.

That may continue long-term into the winter.

In which case, any surplus the budget has is probably going to be diverted, trying to just maintain in terms of the general population.

When it gets down to education, you can change business model overnight, but you can start adapting the business model to cater for different circumstances.

So I don't think you can call for more funding.

I think you have to get better management of the funding that's available for the universities, for all education systems, and think about how we do it better.

And doing it better, by the way, is not saying that online is cheaper.

It's just saying that you're shifting the way you do your learning to something different.

But it will reduce costs down.

You know, it's a conversation that nobody wants to have.

I think we have to look at education as we go forward, particularly with the use of technology.

I think that the education model has not shifted enough in the adaption of online learning.