Last week it was reported that Cambridge University had spent almost £3m on wine in one year. Is it a wise use of funds?

Prof Peter Strike, vice-chancellor, University of Cumbria

Oxford and Cambridge live in a slightly different part of the higher education world. The rest of us are by no means in a position to make that kind of expenditure. A great deal of care goes into spending decisions. We focus on investing in the best set of learning and teaching facilities for students and developing research capacity – those are the main things that a university business is about. We don't have large fellows' dinners – occasionally we might have a social event that draws our supporters together, but they're modest affairs.

Daisy Hughes, second-year English student at Cambridge University

We have to take into account that some of that money was spent on wine for the colleges' catering or investment businesses, so in the long run it will come back to students. But the portion that's spent on free wine for fellows is problematic – especially when the people serving it to them aren't being paid enough to get them out of in-work poverty.

Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent

Instead of being outraged at this one story – where, in a sense, entertainment and the whole catering and conference side of universities is getting out of hand – we should ask important questions about the role of universities. Are they there to educate people, or are they becoming focused on entertainment? That's a problem that affects many of the new universities as well as Cambridge, Oxford or the Russell Group. As an emphasis has been placed on student experience, the amount of money that's being spent on student bars, accommodation and turning universities into theme parks, rather than on libraries, teaching resources or on providing low-paid staff with decent pay, is quite considerable.

Joshua Simons, second-year politics student who investigated how much the university spends on catering

It begs questions about priorities. Cambridge is a big, very old institution. Part of the reason it spends so much on wine is that lots of colleges have it written into their statutes that they have to provide free wine for fellows – they'd have to change their constitutions if they wanted to stop.

Simon Renton, president of the University and College Union

It's poor public relations at the very least, but it pales into insignificance compared to, say, building projects that some university management teams have chosen to engage in during recent years. At the same time, staff in higher education have in effect had a pay cut of 13% since 2008. Central government has deliberately set up a kind of pseudo-market and for that reason institutions are encouraged to spend money on things other than teaching and research. Actually, what attracts students to universities is UK academics' erudition, dedication and hard work.

Cambridge University spokesperson

The cost and funding of undergraduate teaching is an entirely separate matter from colleges' catering and conference activities, which are substantial. Tuition fees are exclusively spent on education purposes. The cost of providing an undergraduate education at Cambridge is around £14,800 per year. Even with a £9,000 fee, the university faces a shortfall of around £5,000, which it meets from its own funds.