The future funding of higher education in England and Wales is set to be substantially cut after the Government announced it plans to tackle the national debt and budget deficit.

Chancellor George Osborne proposed that the education budget will be cut from £7.1 billion to £4.2 billion by 2014. Funding for the arts and humanities will be hardest hit, in favour of science and technology degrees.

The long-awaited Comprehensive Spending Review, comes on the back of the recent Browne Report into higher education that proposes lifting a cap on fees which could result in students paying up to £7,000 a year.

Overall, Osborne unveiled £81 billion of cuts across the public sector over the next four years.

The cuts have the potential to impact upon higher education spending in Scotland. The allocated budget that Scotland receives from Westminster is to be cut by £4 billion. Much of the money that Scotland spends on higher education comes out of its allocated budget it receives from London.

The National Union of Students in Scotland has called on the Scottish Government to distribute funds in a sensible manner. An NUS Scotland spokesperson said, “the Scottish Government must learn from the mistakes the UK Government is intent on making, and protect spending on students, colleges and universities.”

Rachel Taylor, director of higher education at PriceWaterhouseCoopers said, “ These cuts will call the viability of some universities into question and at the same time create greater urgency to pursue efficiency savings.”

The government has also announced that the education maintenance allowances are to be scrapped in an attempt to save £500 million from the education budget.

Known as the EMA, these constitute weekly grants of £10-30, paid directly to sixth formers to encourage them to stay at secondary school beyond the age of 16.

Critics of the plan assert that scrapping the grants will serve to narrow university participation and lead to more pupils underachieving.

Education Secretary Michael Gove defended the Government’s plans claiming that 90 per cent of current recipients would still remain in education.

The Government has instead proposed to allocate £50 million directly to schools and colleges. Furthermore Osborne announced plans for a £150 million scholarship fund to help those from disadvantaged backgrounds and also increased investment in adult apprenticeship schemes to create an extra 75,000 places a year.

Mark Lasarowicz, Labour MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, has warned that the cuts announced risk plunging the economy back into recession. He denounced coalition’s claims of reform as a “codeword for drastic cuts”.

He added, “It is already clear that the poorest and most vulnerable in our society will be amongst the biggest losers after already being hit by cuts by the City Council over the last year.”