My area ' s still waiting for its first university . Mine is officially the largest town in the UK without any university campus , and it is in one of I think only two counties in England without a university . There aren ' t even any big universities nearby it ' s a university wasteland for a good 30 miles in any direction . The brain drain is an extremely serious issue for us . Education issues here are a serious drag on our local economy , and cause very real and very noticeable social problems . This headline is super depressing . Knowing that not only is the possibility of it happening receding , but that there ' s a real sense that we ' ve missed our historic opportunity and it might never come round again .