If you’re 16 years old and planning on studying for a degree, you might want to keep an eye on what Adam Tickell has to say about eligibility for tuition fees.
“We are getting students without a single A-level or equivalent getting access to the student loan book,” says Adam Tickell, about the current financial crisis of universities in the UK.
Tickell joined the University of Birmingham as its vice chancellor in 2021, where he has since remained. In recent news, he has shared concerns regarding the current financial state of university funding in the UK. Flagging that he believes one of the reasons the UK is experiencing financial hardship across this sector is because “We’re investing so much money in people who … are not really capable of graduating,” he says.
Speaking at a conference in London, Tickell proposed that student loans should only be available to those with A-levels or similar.
Right now, the UK’s policies surrounding eligibility for student finance are flexible. GCSEs are a benchmark, with the addition of A Levels, T Levels and BTECS as a few examples of eligibility. Though each university has its own set of rules for entry requirements.
What does the UK’s university ‘financial crisis’ look like?
There’s no denying the UK has been in a funding crisis across university sectors for several years now. In October 2025, Universities UK released a report on the participation of 60 institutions. It concluded that the number of closed university departures has doubled from 9%, that 49% have closed courses, and 46% have removed module options.
