Article
🔴 It’s Red University Day.
Originally posted on LinkedIn on January 15, 2026.
| 🔴 It’s Red University Day. 🔴 I have already posted the “I’m only mildly alarmed” (🟢) and “I’m checking the exits, but calmly” (🟠) lists. Today is the institutions that will probably have to do something properly dramatic over the next five years (or have already started). Not “change the logo and launch a new strategy”. More the sort of thing that turns up in the minutes as ‘transformational options’. What “something dramatic” looks like will vary. I do not think most are existentially doomed, but the menu is not especially comforting: mergers, sub-merger cost sharing, “strategic partnerships” that smell faintly of takeover, refinancing that comes with a helpful banker permanently installed in the passenger seat, or the kind of cost cutting 🧑🏽🎓🔫 that makes HR develop a nervous tick. Some will try to carve out a defensible niche and survive on specialism, efficiency, or sheer bloody-mindedness. These traffic-light lists are not (entirely) a figment of my imagination. They are based on my analysis of thousands of annual reports plus third-party data. I will publish the methodology and analysis next week, because everyone loves statistics. (Everyone.) See the linked article for a one-line summary of each of the red-rated universities. 🔴 The Red List 🔴 🔴 Research Intensive University of Aberdeen 🛢️ | University of Birmingham 🧪 | Cranfield University ✈️ | Durham University 🏰 | University of Essex 🧩 | University of Glasgow 🏛️ | University of Leicester 🦊 | Queen Mary University of London 👑 | University of Reading 📚 | University of Surrey 🛰️ | University of Sussex 🌿 | University of York 🏰 🔴 London Teaching University of Greenwich 🛰️ | London South Bank University 🚇 🔴 Regionally Anchored Anglia Ruskin University 🏙️ | Aston University 🏭 | University of Bedfordshire 🧳 | University College Birmingham 🍽️ | Bournemouth University 🌊 | University of Bradford 🧪 | University of Brighton 🏖️ | Canterbury Christ Church University ⛪ | University of Chester 🏰 | University of Chichester ⛪ | University of Cumbria 🏔️ | De Montfort University 🧵 | University of Derby 🐏 | University of Dundee 🐧 | Edinburgh Napier University 🏴 | University of Hertfordshire 🦌 | University of Huddersfield 🧶 | University of Hull ⚓ | Keele University 🗝️ | University of Kent 🏰 | University of Northampton 🏞️ | Northumbria University 🏙️ | Oxford Brookes University 🚲 | University of Portsmouth ⚓ | University of Plymouth ⚓ | Sheffield Hallam University 🏗️ | University of South Wales 🐉 | Staffordshire University 🏭 | University of Suffolk 🌾 | University of Sunderland ⚓ | Teesside University 🏭 | University of Greater Manchester 🐝 | University of the West of Scotland 🏴 | University of Winchester ⛪ | University of Wolverhampton 🐺 | University of Worcester 🥫 | Wrexham University ⚽ 🔴 Alternative The Open University 🧑💻 #UKHigherEducation #HigherEducation #Universities #UniversityFinance #AI |