million+ responds to annual grant letter to Hefce
Responding to the publication of the Secretary of State John Denham’s letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive of million+ said,
“Universities will be extremely disappointed that additional student numbers have been restricted. This is at odds with the increase in the number of 18 year olds in the system and the fact that rising levels of unemployment usually result in an increase in the number of people going to university including for the first time. In this time of rising unemployment it is an absolute tragedy that there are no additional student numbers available for universities to assist with up-skilling and re-skilling workers.
“The decision to restrict student numbers also goes against the Government’s own commitment to widening participation and could impact on the new university centres which the Government has supported. There is little point in providing capital funding if there is no increase in student numbers.
“The Government’s recognition that excellence in research must be funded wherever it is found is welcome but the ending of capability funding means that unless this is taken into account, the status quo in terms of distribution of funding will remain. Overall the percentage increase in funding for research is again greater than that for teaching. This means that it is more and not less important that universities which excel in teaching and excellent, high quality research are properly funded.”
Notes to editors:
- million+ is a leading university think-tank, with 28 subscribing universities, working to solve complex problems in higher education.
- The letter to Hefce from the Secretary of State John Denham can be found here www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2009/grant/grant_letter_0910.pdf
- For more information please contact Gemma Tumelty, Public Affairs Officer on 0207 7171657 or 07900277819