UK higher education has a proud tradition stretching back centuries, with St. Andrews almost 600 years old, and teaching having existed at Oxford for more than 900 years. There is no reason why universities established more recently should not demonstrate similar longevity. The management of stakeholders has always been central to the successful university: councils, courts, senates, academic boards, local authorities, government departments, citizens, students, parents, etc. However, there is now a very real danger of losing that proud unbeaten record. That proud tradition is under threat from all sides including, significantly, from a potentially interventionist government. It has to stop or the current challenges that university administrators and managers face will simply weigh too heavily on them. In this article, the author outlines the current challenges in higher education administration and management in the UK and discusses how institutions and administrators should begin to address and respond to challenges.