March 21, 2003

Britain's Sinking Fleet of Universities

Institutions have become less elitist and more financially troubled

By KATE GALBRAITH

Carrying signs that proclaimed "Tax the Rich to Fund Education" and "War on Fees, Not Iraq," some 20,000 students poured through London's streets in December to protest the possibility of tuition increases at British universities.

The month before, professors and university staff members were on the streets, beginning a scattering of one-day strikes over what they said were inadequate cost-of-living allowances in London, one of the most expensive cities in the world. To dramatize