Earlier this month, writes Liz Ford, the British Council published its predictions for the future of English language teaching in its booklet, English Next.
The book, by David Graddol, was gloomy reading for UK universities, and their already depleting share of the overseas student market, in the face of China's continued economic ascendancy.
Graddol predicts that UK universities, already competing with the US and Australia, will continue to lose overseas students, particularly from Asia, as countries that have in the past provided the main source of international students reposition themselves as net exporters or higher education.
Students will begin heading to China for cheaper degrees that will be taught in English and served with a slice of Mandarin on the side.
China, which is predicted to become the world's biggest economy by 2030, will soon be knocking on the doors of its neighbours, particularly India, Japan and Korea, to poach students who would otherwise have headed west.
Some UK universities have sensed the changing wind and have already forged links with Chinese institutions. Others, such as Nottingham and the Open University, have gone one further and established their own campuses in the country. Liverpool has said it will set up a new university and Manchester and the OU have teamed up for an overseas venture.
They are unlikely to be the last to take such action. All of which begs the question, when will the academic boycotts begin?
Surely lecturers who pushed so hard last year to boycott Israeli universities for their alleged abuse of Palestinians' rights won't be able to stand by and let its institutions ingratiate themselves with a country with its own dubious human rights record?
No one appears to be talking very loudly along these lines, which makes us wonder whether in these hard financial times, academia doesn't want morals to get in the way of bleeding its new cash cow.
