Perhaps I should have said corporate system there. (I'm not brilliant with words.)

It appears to me that universities are very much inseparable from the rest of the globalised-corporatised-oilised etc world. They too are large heirarchical organisations, are also dependent on long-distance transport of personnel and goods, and the globalised hi-tech such as advanced computer networks, and other big suppliers. And have crucial mutual links of dependency. Big biz needs institutions to provide its "trained" (sorry for my cynicism) workforce, and to provide its ideology propaganda (e.g. Mellon Institute founded to give "authority" to Andrew Mellon's fluoridation hoax; more recently the hugely profitable hoax that hiv causes aids). Meanwhile universities need the money from big biz, medical schools for instance funded by big pharma.

So if/when the globalised-corporatised etc system has a terminal breakdown (from e.g. oil/food/credit market paralysis, electricity blackout, hyperinflation) then the universities would go down with them (and all large organisations similarly dependent).

You'll be aware that at the moment record numbers are enrolling in uk universities, but that that is liable to change when (a) the money becomes short and/or (b) people lose hope of seeing any recovery for their studies to be paid back from. On that basis perhaps it is conceivable that educational institutions may start to bankrupt even before Tesco et al. (Food is always going to be higher priority than qualifications.) (Off to sleep now.)