Thirty per cent funding cuts will force universities to axe thousands of courses, lecturers and students, university bosses’ most senior representative has warned.
In interviews on Sunday and yesterday, Universities UK (UUK) president Steve Smith, said the cuts announced by Business, Innovation and Skills Secretary Mandelson before Christmas would force academic institutions to take ‘drastic measures’.
Smith, who is also vice-chancellor of Exeter University, said that spending cuts already announced by the government would reduce university budgets by around 12.5 per cent.
On top of this, he warned that universities face further cuts of 6.3 per cent a year over the next three years, taking total cuts to 30 per cent.
Smith stressed: ‘If you take 30 per cent of government funding away, something has to give.
‘All you can do in such dire circumstances is cut the number of courses, students, staff or pay – or a combination of all these things.’
He warned: ‘With cuts of the level we are talking about here, the measures taken would be drastic – the kind we have not seen since the 1980s.’
The UUK projection comes after Mandelson last month told universities they faced a £135 million cut in funding next year.
That came on top of £180 million of cuts unveiled last year and a further £600 million of longer efficiency savings to be made from 2012.
Smith said the effects of the cuts would be ‘disastrous’, adding: ‘This is a self-inflicted wound. There will be an immediate effect on teaching quality. They are the most serious cuts since Mrs Thatcher in 1981.
‘The danger of cutting university budgets is that it threatens to undermine our competitive edge and damages the economy in the long run.’
Mandelson announced the cuts just before Christmas in a letter to university funding body HEFCE.
Lecturers’ union UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, warned: ‘The HEFCE grant letter is a real Christmas kick in the teeth for staff and students and final proof that the government has completely lost its way when it comes to higher education.
‘You cannot make these kinds of cuts and expect no consequences.
‘We will see teachers on the dole, students in larger classes and a higher education sector unable to contribute as much to the economy or society.
‘How all that marries up with a government that is pioneering a university sector more reliant on student feedback is beyond me.’
Universities UK’s Smith said: ‘The confirmation that the higher education budget is going to face considerable cuts will put universities in England under severe pressure.’
He added: ‘The sector will not be able to deliver more with less without compromising our longer-term sustainability and international competitiveness. . .
‘These cuts will make it even more important that we look in detail at the costs of student support as part of the Browne Review.’
