UNIS WILL BE FORCED TO AXE THOUSANDS – warns Universities UK President
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UNIS WILL BE FORCED TO AXE THOUSANDS – warns Universities UK President
Thirty per cent funding cuts will force universities to axe thousands
of courses, lecturers and students, university bosses’ most senior
representative has warned.
In interviews on Sunday and yesterday, Universities UK (UUK) president
Steve Smith, said the cuts announced by Business, Innovation and
Skills Secretary Mandelson before Christmas would force academic
institutions to take ‘drastic measures’.
Smith, who is also vice-chancellor of Exeter University, said that
spending cuts already announced by the government would reduce
university budgets by around 12.5 per cent.
On top of this, he warned that universities face further cuts of 6.3
per cent a year over the next three years, taking total cuts to 30 per
cent.
Smith stressed: ‘If you take 30 per cent of government funding away,
something has to give.
‘All you can do in such dire circumstances is cut the number of
courses, students, staff or pay – or a combination of all these
things.’
He warned: ‘With cuts of the level we are talking about here, the
measures taken would be drastic – the kind we have not seen since the
1980s.’
The UUK projection comes after Mandelson last month told universities
they faced a £135 million cut in funding next year.
That came on top of £180 million of cuts unveiled last year and a
further £600 million of longer efficiency savings to be made from
2012.
Smith said the effects of the cuts would be ‘disastrous’, adding:
‘This is a self-inflicted wound. There will be an immediate effect on
teaching quality. They are the most serious cuts since Mrs Thatcher in
1981.
‘The danger of cutting university budgets is that it threatens to
undermine our competitive edge and damages the economy in the long
run.’
Mandelson announced the cuts just before Christmas in a letter to
university funding body HEFCE.
Lecturers’ union UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, warned: ‘The HEFCE
grant letter is a real Christmas kick in the teeth for staff and
students and final proof that the government has completely lost its
way when it comes to higher education.
‘You cannot make these kinds of cuts and expect no consequences.
‘We will see teachers on the dole, students in larger classes and a
higher education sector unable to contribute as much to the economy or
society.
‘How all that marries up with a government that is pioneering a
university sector more reliant on student feedback is beyond me.’
Universities UK’s Smith said: ‘The confirmation that the higher
education budget is going to face considerable cuts will put
universities in England under severe pressure.’
He added: ‘The sector will not be able to deliver more with less
without compromising our longer-term sustainability and international
competitiveness. . .
‘These cuts will make it even more important that we look in detail at
the costs of student support as part of the Browne Review.’