The lecture hall was silent, save for the faint hum of fluorescent lights, as I sat in the back row of my old university, a place I once believed was a temple of truth. Decades ago, as a wide-eyed freshman, I'd scribbled notes on Plato and quantum mechanics, convinced that these ivy-clad walls were a sanctuary for ideas, a place where minds were sharpened against the whetstone of reason. Now, in 2025, returning as a guest for an alumni event, I felt a pang of betrayal. The university had changed, glossy brochures touted "accelerated degrees" and "career-ready credentials," while posters for luxury dorms and a new football stadium lined the halls. Matt Goodwin's Bad Education, cited in a June 2025 Daily Sceptic article, called universities "privileged, degraded, pandering institutions heading towards heat death." That phrase stuck with me, a grim diagnosis of a system I once revered. The truth, I realized, had been sidelined for profit, and the UK's universities, once beacons of inquiry, had become corporations peddling degrees for dollars, abandoning their founding mission to pursue knowledge above all. Just like in Australia.
Walking the campus, I passed a towering student centre, its glass facade gleaming like a corporate headquarters. It was a far cry from the modest library where I'd spent sleepless nights chasing ideas. Back then, tuition was a fraction of today's £9,250 for UK students, or the £30,000-plus charged to international ones, as universities leaned on foreign fees to offset government cuts. Goodwin's critique, echoed by Professor James Alexander in the Daily Sceptic, paints universities as conspiracies against the public, churning out credentials for a market that values paper over wisdom. The numbers tell the story: UK universities generated £45.7 billion in revenue in 2024, with over 20% from international students, according to Universities UK. Yet, as I overheard a student complain about her £50,000 debt for a media studies degree, I wondered what she'd really bought, a ticket to a job market that barely values her credential, or a shiny product packaged as education? Or a fast track to unemployment?
The corporate shift began decades ago, but its roots feel personal. In the 1980s, as Thatcher's policies slashed public funding, universities turned to students as revenue streams. The 2004 Higher Education Act introduced tuition fees, and by 2012, fees tripled. A 2018 Guardian article by an anonymous academic noted how British universities became "corporatised," with lecturers losing autonomy to standardised curricula designed for "efficiency." I saw this firsthand at the alumni event: a professor confided that her course on medieval literature was axed for lacking "market relevance," replaced by a module on digital marketing. The Daily Sceptic piece cites Goodwin's refusal to pin this solely on the Left, and I agree, blaming ideology oversimplifies a greed-driven transformation. Universities, chasing rankings and revenue, now spend millions on advertising and bloated administrative staffs, with UK vice-chancellors earning an average of £418,000 in 2024, per the Office for Students, while adjunct lecturers scrape by on £25,000.
The pursuit of truth, once the university's heart, has been hollowed out. At a campus coffee shop, I overheard students discussing "accelerated" eight-week courses, a model borrowed from for-profit institutions like the University of Maryland University College, which a 2015 Guardian piece criticised for prioritising speed over learning. Retention rates at such programs hover below 30%, yet they're marketed as paths to success, especially to vulnerable groups like military veterans or low-income students. In the UK, the Open University's shift to online "micro-credentials" mirrors this, offering bite-sized courses for quick profit but little intellectual depth. A 2023 Jacobin article noted that universities now prioritise "practical" degrees, business, tech, cybersecurity, over liberal arts, turning education into job training. I thought of my own philosophy degree, which taught me to question, not just to code or manage. Today, that degree might be deemed a luxury, not a necessity.
The Daily Sceptic's mention of "heat death" feels apt. Universities, swollen with 2.86 million students in 2024 (HESA data), act like corporations chasing growth, not knowledge. They build lavish facilities, £1.2 billion on new buildings in 2023 alone, while students drown in debt, with 1.8 million UK graduates owing £252 billion collectively. At the alumni event, a young graduate shared her story: £60,000 in loans for a degree that landed her a barista job. "They sold me a dream," she said, "but it's just a piece of paper." For-profit colleges, like the University of Phoenix, exposed in a 2012 Senate report for spending 50% of revenue on marketing while leaving students with worthless degrees, set the playbook. UK universities, though nonprofit, mimic this, with 40% of budgets going to non-academic costs like branding and executive salaries, per a 2022 Reddit thread on r/AskAcademia.
Free speech, too, suffers in this corporate machine. Goodwin and Alexander argue universities pander to cultural trends, stifling debate to avoid "offense." At a panel discussion I attended, a lecturer hesitated to critique a new diversity policy, whispering later, "I could be sacked for saying the wrong thing." The Free Speech Union reported 52 UK councils adopting codes that punish "offensive" speech, chilling academics and students alike. This echoes the grooming gangs scandal, where fear of being labelled racist silenced whistleblowers, as detailed in The Critic's June 2025 article. When universities choose image over truth, they betray their mission, turning campuses into echo chambers where profit, not inquiry, reigns.
Yet there's a flicker of hope. At a student-led debate I joined, young voices demanded a return to education as a public good, not a commodity. Initiatives like Ralston College, launched in 2021 and cited in a FEE article, aim to revive humanistic inquiry, offering degrees focused on truth and free thought. As I left the campus, passing a mural proclaiming "World-Class Excellence," I thought of my grandfather, a factory worker who never went to university but valued knowledge for its own sake. He'd be appalled at this corporate takeover, where degrees are sold like cars and truth is an afterthought. Universities aren't conspiracies, as Goodwin claims, but they've lost their way, seduced by profit over purpose. Reclaiming their soul means putting ideas first, not dollars, and giving students the freedom to question, not just to pay.
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/06/20/universities-are-a-conspiracy-against-the-public/
"Matt Goodwin, earlier this year, published Bad Education. He is doing a good job in making himself the critical voice of civilisational desperation, and doing so, not only as an academic, now former academic, but a fully-fledged public figure. Goodwin is making himself the tip of a spear of a grinding recognition and growing realisation: one which is still not admitted very often inside the universities. This is that the universities are privileged, guilty, degraded, pandering institutions heading towards expansion and heat death.
However, the arguments back and forth get very tangled. And I don't think it is very helpful to blame the Left for the problems of the university. Goodwin blames the Left. So does Peterson. Well, one can blame the Left if one wants: but it comes at a cost: it alienates everyone who thinks the Left is beautiful, truthful and honourable. So I think the argument should be subtler. Plus, we don't want a university to be Right either. Not unless we define Right and Left very carefully. Which no one does. 'Right' and 'Left' are political words, and therefore about as helpful in analysis as a custard pie or grapeshot.