Graduates at Cumbria University, which had a £4.4m deficit in 2016-17 and is ranked 123rd out of 131 universities

The builders have been busy at Cumbria University. State-of-the-art science laboratories in Carlisle, a new teaching block in Lancaster and a redeveloped campus in the heart of the Lake District are the fruits of a £50m revamp at the 11-year-old institution, which sprawls across several sites in northwest England.

All of this construction work has placed a strain on the university’s finances. The most recent set of accounts shows that it burnt through nearly half its cash reserves in 2016-17, finishing the financial year with £13.1m. During the same period, its operating deficit of £4.4m was the third-highest in England as a proportion of income.

Cumbria’s building spree is one sign of an intensifying arms race among universities that has pushed some to the brink