Not what seems like immediately good news - a letter from Steve Smith

A letter from Steve Smith, President of Universities UK (the Vice-Chancellors' group) has been apparently leaked to the BBC. In it he writes that £3,200,000,000 could be cut from government grants to universities; a 79% reduction. The figures come from the Browne Review, where it is says that the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will have a £700 million pound budget. Sounds a lot, but the current HEFCE budget is £3.9 billion.


To quote from the BBC News report:

Professor Smith says the Browne report, which itself called for unlimited tuition fees, was framed by "what is coming on October 20".

And he adds that universities will do all they can to "replace as much of this lost funding as possible". This means raising tuition fees to make up for lost state funding, he says.

But he also warns that this may not be possible before 2012, when the government is expecting to have measures in place to allow for a rise in fees.

He adds: "The biggest worry is simple to state: if Browne fails to get through the Commons, or gets unpicked, or gets accepted but only after major changes are made, we will simply not be able to replace the unprecedented reductions in state funding that are coming in the Spending Review."

I graduate in 2012 and was planning to try and enter the HE sector. I know I should put my trust in God but in all honesty I am mildly concerned now.

Not sure I can objectively comment on this. 


PS: Steve Smith is Vice-Chancellor of Exeter University.