From the article, it sounds like this guy was creating custom glassware. Can you just call up a manufacturer in China or India and get them to create a handful of specialised glassware?
Repair of specialized equipment is a big deal, too. In many cases it takes as much skill as fabricating an apparatus in the first place.
Like the article says, it helps a lot if the glassblower understands the scientific process and works closely with the researcher. I think researchers work around this by finding ways to use or combine standard equipment. A scientist doing truly novel work, though, will benefit from or require customized glassware.
My belief is that this will be solved by 3-D printing or automation in some way.
The most recent 3-D printing with glass I have read about creates a piece of fused silica, which is even harder to fabricate and more useful in lab work. They print it from a silica infused polymer, and then each section is fused with the laser, and the polymer burns away, leaving quartz. Seems quite workable to me. This was covered in an article published recently.
edit: one article that gives a good overview: https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15114
a more consumery article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/you-can-now-3d-pri...
There are still things best done with tubes, and in some ways tubes are much better than transistors if it comes to reliability, mostly related to the sheer physical size preventing as-trivial cases of ESD/EMP fried LNAs in radios. Or the HF switch selecting between antennas and RX/TX. But this is probably a minor concern in practice.
I am interested in the amount of specialized glasswork required by the institution. I also doubt that the glassware of tomorrow's science is even remotely like the glassware of today's. The next glassworker is more of a materials scientist, with glassware as a skill, probably; in much the same way as a programmer may know both Java and Python.
FDM glass: https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Glass-Printing_Med... (and sadly this counts as a pretty complex example)
Glassware, not complex at all: http://www.raystoreylighting.com/wpimages/wp71af747e_05_06.j...
Somewhat complex glassware: http://www.adamschittenden.com/laboratoryglasswarecondenser....
You can see the clear differences. Assuming you can get the printer at all, 3d printed glass has layers (and therefore isn't going to contain gases or hold vacuums very well), it's easily 10x heavier, far more expensive, ...
Also there are several alternate methods under development that won't leave a rough surface, like hot glass methods.
Glass can be smoothed by heating to temperatures below that which cause sagging and deformity. If the smoothness is fine, on the order of a frosty surface (>200 grit or so) that would polish it (this is called kiln polishing). Of course, you risk basically melting the piece so this is a delicate operation with anything other than a plate of glass.
If 3d printing doesn't work, we can create robots that do what glassblowers do. I could easily script what I do for the right machinery (a series of computer controlled lathes and torches).
More likely the University will outsource to a local company that in turn handles the communication with an overseas factory.