EducationGuardian.co.uk | Higher special reports | Masters of debt

All the vice chancellors interviewed in this week's Guardian series on the future of higher education expressed forebodings. It was summed up by one who worried that universities would be sucked into a downward spiral where few could be recruited because of the poor conditions and salaries. He was wrong in just one respect. This is not some grim spectre beyond the horizon; it is already happening.

Fifty of England's universities are in debt. In the US, spending per student has doubled since the 1970s; in the UK it has halved.