Our universities face a funding crisis. To survive, they must learn from the US | Timothy Garton Ash

To cope with the cuts we need a new model of funding, but one which ensures that poorer students are not excluded

Next week I make my annual migration from Oxford to Stanford. These are two of the world's greatest universities, but Oxford faces a challenge that Stanford does not. How it meets that challenge – how it is allowed by government to meet it – will be a token not just of Britain's but of Europe's seriousness of purpose in the 21st century. If even Oxford cannot stay up in the...