High street names may be falling by the wayside and manufacturing reeling under regular hammer blows, but those seeking a British success story should look no further than the UK’s universities. News of a £280m loan to University College London, to fund ambitious expansion plans to its campus in the centre of the city, and in the former Olympic Park in Stratford, is the latest sign of boom time in the sector.

UCL is one of a handful of British universities maintaining their place high up in the global rankings for research and teaching excellence — even in an age where esteem based on traditional prestige is being challenged by massive investment in Asian institutions, and hot competition for courses taught in English.

Even using different methodologies, the Times Higher Education ranking for 2016 and the QS ranking both place Cambridge, Oxford, UCL, Imperial College and King’s College London in the world’s top 20 higher education institutions. Edinburgh, Manchester, the London School of Economics and Bristol are prominent among runners-up in the top 40.

According to Universities UK, the sector’s umbrella body, higher education brings in an estimated £10.7bn of earnings for Britain (in a paper based on analysis of 2011-12 figures), and £3.8bn of this was from expenditure on fees and accommodation from non-EU students.

The plans for gleaming new buildings at UCL, as well as the new London Business School project at the former Marylebone Road town hall building, are partly a testament to optimism and growth in British institutions, partly another step in the international facilities arms race for attracting overseas students and the high fees they bring with them.

University ambitions have also boosted local growth. Regeneration of cities and regions has, in Manchester and other of the most successful examples, been boosted by co-operation between the local universities, business and local government, and by a growth in student numbers.

While the £9,000 per year annual tuition fees for UK students introduced in 2012 have left middle-class families reeling (those from poorer homes are exempt), the new income has fuelled an expansionist mood among vice chancellors.

Finance chiefs now have an increasing revenue stream against which to borrow because the government has removed the cap on student numbers, and the European Investment Bank boasts of having helped raised more than £2.1bn for 30 universities across the UK to build new campuses and research facilities, including at Swansea, Belfast, Strathclyde, Birmingham, Hull and Lincoln.

The picture, with increased attempts to boost earnings from spinouts and intellectual property happening alongside this secure fee income and ability to borrow, looks rosy. But there are shadows lengthening on some college lawns: voices have been raised to caution against the government’s desire to further liberalise the sector, including Martin Wolf with his warning not to try and run universities like businesses.

Some experts say university managers may not be equipped to cope when expansion also brings additional costs; others suspect hubris at the top. Vice chancellors’ pay has soared to extravagant levels, for example, leading the University and College Union, which represents lecturers, to condemn “the largesse that has embarrassed higher education in recent years”. Much of this, however, can be described as the problems that come with success.