University funding cuts will lead to disappointment for students and drop in quality, warns UCU

In 2010-11 only 25 (19% of) higher education institutions in England will receive a real terms funding rise (above the forecast level of inflation). More than a quarter (37 institutions) will have a real terms cut (a cash increase below the level of inflation) and over half (69 institutions) face a cash cut. The worst affected institutions will get cash cuts of up to 12%, according to funding arrangements set out today by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
 
The union said the university sector simply couldn't do more for less and pointed to other countries where education was being singled out for extra cash, rather than punitive cuts. In a damning verdict on widening participation, the union accused the government of abandoning a generation of students.
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'You cannot make cuts without serious consequences. After years of rightly encouraging people to go to university, the government is abandoning a generation who, instead of benefiting from education, will find themselves on the dole alongside sacked teaching staff.
 
'We believe the cuts could lead to thousands of jobs being lost and the staff who survive the cull left with more students to teach and less time to spend with them. Anyone who thinks this won't massively impact on the quality of education in this country is living in a dream world.
 
'The consequences of the cuts will be building projects on hold, class sizes growing where jobs are lost, thousands of students denied access to university and staff following them to the dole queue. Other leading economies are investing money in universities in order to help economic growth and widen participation, yet our government seems intent on doing the opposite.'
 
HEFCE announced a reduction for universities in cash terms of £573 million from last year. This does not include the £22 million it expects to claim back from universities that over-recruited students last year.
 
University applications are already up by over 100,000 this year, but the number of additional funded student places has been cut by 15,000, compared with the government's original plans for 2010-11*. This year it has been estimated that, if the current rise in applications continues, 275,000 students could miss out on a place in the summer.

* In May 2009, DIUS confirmed that growth in additional student numbers for 2010-11 would be limited to 10,000, rather than the 25,000 originally planned in the 18 January 2008 grant letter.