Leading UK universities have issued a strong warning to Westminster that spending cuts for universities could severely damage the sector and undermine the UK’s position as a world leader in education.

In December’s pre-Budget report, ministers announced that £600 million would have to be cut for universities by 2013, in addition to a previous request for universities to find efficiency savings of £180 million by 2011.

It is widely expected that higher education spending will be cut after the next election regardless of which party is in power, as the incoming government attempts to reverse its growing deficit.

In a statement in The Guardian, the Russell Group of 20 universities, which includes the University of Edinburgh in addition to both Oxford and Cambridge, said that: 'It has taken more than 800 years to create one of the world's greatest education systems, and it looks like it will take just six months to bring it to its knees.'

They added, 'If the government targets these huge cuts on university budgets they will have a devastating effect not only on students and staff, but also on our international competitiveness, national economy and ability to recover from recession...cuts of this magnitude in overall funding will impact on the sustainability of our research and cannot fail to affect even the most outstanding universities.'

Director-General Wendy Piatt warned that the cuts could lead to the collapse of up to 30 higher education institutions.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, however, has swiftly denounced the group’s argument, claiming that despite less money being available overall, spending on teaching and research funding will continue to grow over the next two years. Mandelson insists that universities must be more efficient with how they spend money, suggesting they offer shorter courses as a means of achieving this.

Mandelson also gave full banking to Labour’s position on higher education, saying that: “Universities have never enjoyed such a long and sustained period of public financial support, and more students will be studying next year than ever before in our history. These new constraints are very small in the context of overall university income, and certainly do not reverse a decade of investment in excellence.”

Nevertheless, the Russell Group believes that cuts will undoubtedly lead to the UK following behind other countries, pointing to the fact that both France and Germany are currently increasing their spending on higher education, by €11 billion and €18 billion respectively. Additionally, in the United States President Obama has increased spending on education as part of a stimulus program to bring the country out of recession.

The group believes universities do not carry the same political baggage as in other countries, saying that: “There seems to be a greater focus on cutting the funding of higher education than almost anything else. The funding of the health service, police and schools are all currently 'protected' – which presumably reflects their perceived importance at the ballot box."

Though devolved power for education mean that cuts announced in December will not extend to Edinburgh and other Scottish universities, there are fears that Scotland  could suffer from the effects that funding cuts could have on the reputation of higher education in the UK as a whole.

Scottish government spending on universities has increased by 3.87 percent since May 2007, and a cash increase of £35 million in resource funding since 2009-10.” However, analysts have warned that the recession could still lead to cuts in Scotland in the future.

The Group hopes that the government takes heed of their warnings when it unveils the 2010 Budget in March.    

Published 19 January 2010

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