The United Kingdom’s universities are under pressure from almost every direction. Four in ten higher-education (HE) institutions are forecast to be in a deficit this financial year, as they grapple with monetary pressures, changing student uptake and reduced funding. This week, more than 518,000 students are due to arrive at the country’s universities, and around 300,000 of the new intake are 18 years old. They enter a creaking system. For some leaders and analysts in the sector, the financial model of universities is unsustainable; for others, the current turmoil is a difficult transition towards a different, but still ambitious, future.Nature asked eight HE leaders and consultants to take stock of the state of the sector, and where they think it is heading. Their responses reveal stark differences in opinion on whether degrees still deliver value to students and if there are crises surrounding funding or the university model. But they do find common ground: agreeing that the current system is financially unsustainable, and that universities are unprepared for the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence.Diana Beech is director of the Finsbury Institute and assistant vice-president for policy and government affairs at City St George’s, University of London. A former chief executive of London Higher — an organization that represents HE institutes — she has also advised three UK government ministers for universities and science.Judith Squires is deputy vice-chancellor and provost at the University of Bristol, UK, where she previously served as pro vice-chancellor for education and students.Ken Sloan is vice-chancellor and chief executive at Harper Adams University in Edgmond, UK, and chair of GuildHE, a representative body of UK HE. He previously held senior leadership positions at the University of Warwick, UK, and at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.Damien Page is vice-chancellor and chief executive of Buckinghamshire New University in High Wycombe, UK. His career spans further and higher education, including senior roles at the UK universities of Greenwich, Leeds Beckett and Wolverhampton.Shân Wareing is vice-chancellor at Middlesex University in London and a National Teaching Fellow. She was previously deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Northampton, UK, and has held executive roles at London South Bank University and Buckinghamshire New University.Tom Richmond is an education-policy analyst and former director of the UK education think tank EDSK. A former secondary teacher and government adviser, he has worked across education, skills and welfare policy.Alex Usher is president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a consultancy based in Toronto, Canada. An internationally recognized HE analyst, he specializes in student finance, access, institutional strategy, rankings and quality measurement.Ian Pickup is pro vice-chancellor for learning, teaching and student experience at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, and the incoming vice-chancellor of the University of Winchester, UK, a role that he will start this December.Universities are in crisisAlex Usher: More of the UK HE sector is in crisis than in pretty much any other country I can name.Diana Beech: There are growing financial difficulties — and public scepticism, domestically — but the UK-university brand remains strong globally.University finances are unsustainable as they areDiana Beech: This has become difficult to dispute.Ian Pickup: The number of universities that are really struggling to make ends meet suggests to me, if it isn’t a crisis, that there’s certainly a whole heap of problems.Ken Sloan: The fundamentals of the system are not set up for the time that we’re in.Being a vice-chancellor today is managing decline, not shaping ambitionJudith Squires: Ambition is more important than ever in order to focus resource and activity in a time of restraint.Diana Beech: Financial pressures take up a lot of bandwidth, but we need our leaders to set positive visions for institutions and find opportunities within those constraints.The goal of higher education needs to be rethoughtKen Sloan: Universities are designed to be long-term, multi-generational institutions. They’re not designed to be just-in-time, in-the-moment organizations.Diana Beech: I think the core purpose of HE remains valid — for example, to educate, generate knowledge and improve society. What we need to rethink is how to deliver this for a changing world.The vice-chancellor job has become more corporateDamienPage: So I don’t think of ‘corporate’ as a pejorative term, I just think that’s the reality of the job: if we do our job corporately well, our academic staff can do what they do well.Ian Pickup: I’d be amazed to find any vice-chancellor today who doesn’t know their way around a spreadsheet and understands financial modelling. So I don’t think there’s any escape from the fact it has become more corporate.