Cuts Watch #368: Cuts in University Funding
England’s universities have been told they will have their budgets slashed by nearly £1bn over the next academic year.
The Guardian reports that the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) has announced that £940m will be cut from universities’ budgets for teaching, research, buildings and other areas, a 9.5% cut.
- The teaching budget will be reduced by £180m to £4.3bn – a 4% cut in cash terms.
- The research grant will be cut by £17.4m to £1.6bn – a 1.1% reduction. Funding is being allocated more selectively by prioritising internationally excellent and world leading research (mainly the bigger, more prestigious universities).
- Funding for raising the proportion of students from the poorest homes at university will be frozen at £144m.
- Grants for capital projects, such as new buildings, have been cut by 58% in cash terms to £223m. Last academic year universities received £532m for building works.
- Universities were also told that they will have an in-year (2010-11) cut for the first time: they will now receive £190m less than they had planned for this academic year.
- A one-off fund to create 20,000 extra university places is being stopped – a reduction of a further £255m.
Universities said they were alarmed and feared they would be in for “a rough ride”. They are expected to receive their individual budgets next month.