Crash padding

Universities may have trouble coping with the Government's go-stop student number policy, but their spokespeople have adjusted with ease. Two or three autumns ago The THES would have been deluged with denials that accommodating most of the first year in the sports hall was any reflection on an institution's ability to cope with demand-led expansion. But with worries this year about filling places, institutions are singing a rather different song: "We actually had a bit of an accommodation crisis this year," one university spokesman volunteered, with more than a touch of pride.