English universities face 18% cut in teaching grants

26 Jan 12
Teaching grants to English universities are to be cut by 18% in the next academic year, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills revealed yesterday
By Vivienne Russell | 26 January 2012

Teaching grants to English universities are to be cut by 18% in the next academic year, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills revealed yesterday.

Its annual grant letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England shows a total reduction in grants of £830m. The letter also sets out indicative funding allocations for 2013/14, which suggest the teaching grant will be cut by a further £932m or 24%.

By contrast, government is significantly increasing loan funds to enable students to pay for the new higher tuition fees, from £2.6bn in the current year to £3.6bn next year and £5bn in 2013/14.

Universities minister David Willetts stressed that the total amount of funding available to the higher education sector was increasing – rising from £9.3bn in 2011/12 to £9.8bn in 2013/14.

He added: ‘It is also essential that the sector works collaboratively to lower their costs. Changes to the VAT treatments of shared services, lowering the costs of procurement and work to reduce the burden of data collection give universities the chance to prioritise more of their resources for teaching and research.’

But the University and College Union warned that the funding changes would be ‘disastrous’ and could damage the reputation of English universities.

‘This is an ideological move that will not save the country money, because millions of pounds will have to be pumped into the loans system so students can borrow money to fund their courses,’ said UCU general secretary Sally Hunt.

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