Universities' funding slashed but public bill for tuition fee loans rockets

The analysis, by UCU, of the figures in today's grant letter from the universities minister, David Willetts, to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) also reveal that between 2009-10 (the last year of the previous government) and 2013-14, public funding for teaching in English universities has been cut by 43%, from £5.1bn to £2.9bn.

But while the grant for teaching is being cut by £934m in 2013-14, the Treasury is having to pay an additional £1.6bn in tuition fee loans to students in 2013-14, compared with 2012-13. Today's letter also calls for restraint on staff pay and says universities should be given greater flexibility on the number of students they can recruit.

UCU said the timing of the call for a restraint on staff pay was unfortunate and embarrassing as it was revealed just last week that university bosses were enjoying an average £10,000 pay rise while offering staff just £150.

The union said permitting institutions to recruit extra students showed government plans to allow institutions to recruit unlimited students with top grades had failed. The 'AAB' experiment led to a number of the country's most selective institutions complaining they could not fill all their places last year.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Slashing public funding for universities and forcing students to foot the bill was an ideological move by the government, not a financial one. The Treasury is hit with a whopping bill to fund tuition loans for students, which means this policy is costing, not saving, money in the short-term.

'It is particularly embarrassing that the government is calling for pay restraint while some at the top continue to feather their nests with whopping pay rises. All staff need to be properly and fairly remunerated if they are to deliver the kind of excellence the government and students demand.

'The move to allow universities to over recruit is an interesting one and presumably has been introduced after the failings of the government's recent reforms which left many universities with unfilled places.'