The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills yesterday issued a revised grant letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, setting out funding for the 2010/2011 academic year. Alice Hynes, Chief Executive of GuildHE, commented:
“We acknowledge that the cut in public spending imposes the burden of achieving quick efficiencies. Higher education has already seen an early share of cuts, and it is very late in the Budget planning that BIS has confirmed its expectation of these reductions to HEFCE. A £170m deduction has been asked from core funding for teaching, compared to March’s HE grant, and a further £30m reduction in spending on capital infrastructure for teaching. This is a big challenge to institutions to continue delivery without frontline teaching activity and teaching resources being damaged by this additional reduction. Hopes keep being put on the Browne Review to provide answers to questions of institutional support via tuition fees and the financing of the student loan book, but maintaining high quality world-class higher education requires a sustainable level of overall investment to deliver what students are paying for and expect.”
The grant letter provides funding for 10,000 additional student places in strategically important and vulnerable subjects. Alice Hynes commented:
“In funding additional places through the University Modernisation Fund, both the current and the previous governments have recognised the role of graduates and institutions in providing essential jobs in priority areas for the recovery and growth of UK plc. GuildHE is pleased to see its members receiving funding to meet some of the additional demand for places in areas such as food and digital industries. Any contraction of higher education would be inconsistent with the demand from applicants and with the demands of economic renewal.
“GuildHE members are also pleased to see the protection of the Higher Education Innovation Fund. This recognises and promotes the indispensible economic and social benefits arising from the interaction of institutions with businesses and the public sector in a knowledge economy.”
For more information, please contact:
Alice Hynes, Chief Executive Officer, GuildHE
Tel: 020 7387 7711
Email: alice.hynes@guildhe.ac.uk
Notes to editors
1. GuildHE is a recognised representative organisation within the higher education sector.
2. For information on the annual grant letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), as well as the allocation of 10,000 additional places to be funded partly by HEFCE and partly by efficiency savings made within institutions, see: https://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2010/places.htm
3. GuildHE members are among the most dynamic and fastest-growing institutions in higher education. For a list of GuildHE institutions, please visit: https://www.guildhe.ac.uk/en/about_guildHE/about_our_members.cfm