25 June 2010
million+ comment on Vince Cable's grant letter to Hefce
Universities in England have had their budgets cut by almost £21m in the 2009-10 academic year and will be expected to manage this loss of grant even though the end of the academic and financial year is only weeks away, leaving institutions with little opportunity to adjust their operating costs.
These reductions, part of cuts totalling £200m for 2010-11, were announced by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable MP, in his revised grant letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce). In addition universities and students are also expected to help the department find additional savings of £100m in 2010-11 – equivalent to 11% of the department’s running costs. With Higher Education and student support accounting for two-thirds of the BIS budget, leading university think-tank million+ has expressed concern that this further requirement to cut budgets by next April (and before the end of the 2010-11 academic financial year) is likely to hit universities and students severely.
Professor Les Ebdon, Chair of million+ and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire said: “This creates further uncertainty just weeks before the start of the university academic and financial year. It is not the way to manage one of the most successful sectors of the UK economy which earns over £5bn in foreign exchange earnings each year.”
“Tuesday budget made clear that everybody will be facing tough cuts in the coming months and years and universities and students will obviously have to bear some of that burden. However, the Government needs a clear plan to foster growth and employment and our future prosperity. As a result these further cuts are short-sighted and will be damaging.”
Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive of million+ said: “It is difficult to see how the Coalition has a political mandate for cuts of this magnitude and evidence is not on their side. The US, France and Germany are all investing billions in higher education and research in spite of deficit reduction programmes.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
1. million+ is a leading university think-tank, working to solve the complex problems in higher education www.millionplus.ac.uk
2. A copy of Vince Cable’s and David Willetts’ revised grant letter of 24 June 2010 to Hefce can be found here. The Hefce circular to universities and FE colleges can be found here.
3. In a separate initiative, on the same day (24 June) that these cuts were announced, David Cameron and Nick Clegg wrote directly to University Finance Directors asking them for proposals as to how savings could be made – a move which has been described as ‘‘highly usual’ in the view of the financial and accounting responsibilities of Vice-Chancellors and Boards of Governors.
4. For more information, comment or interviews from million+ please contact Victoria Mills on 020 7717 1659 or 07900 277819