ABSTRACT
Higher education in the UK stands on the brink of a crisis. The introduction of £9000 per annum fees in most Higher Education Institutions in England and Wales will probably radically change students’ expectations of what universities should provide them with (although there is the possibility that students will continue to behave as they do now, with the only change being the size of their debts at the end). But higher fees are certainly changing the planning that occurs within universities. The removal of direct state funding for degrees in the arts and humanities is causing questions to be asked about whether those degrees are sustainable. Rather than waiting to find out whether people are prepared to pay the higher fees that are supposed to replace the lost state funding, some universities are simply closing the courses they suspect will not attract students in enough numbers. History degrees are already amongst the causalities. Within sports studies degrees, social science and humanities approaches are under threat and are being marginalised in favour of the more obviously vocational approaches that are assumed to be more attractive to students.
