Education experts condemn cuts
The £135 million cut in funding for universities planned for next year has been described as a "terrifying prospect" that could have "devastating" consequences by representatives of Britain’s highest-ranked institutions.
The total cuts could even reach as high as £2.5bn after Professor Michael Arthur and Dr Wendy Piatt, respectively the chairman and director-general of the Russell Group, indicated that the initial decrease in government spending was just the beginning of further cuts to come.
The Russell Group gathers 20 leading universities including Cambridge, Oxford and the London School of Economics.
Their comments come after Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, announced last month that universities will have to deal with a smaller budget next year.
Far reaching
"Irrespective of who will bear most of the pain, all universities are really going to suffer,” Dr Piatt and Prof Arthur said. “Wherever the axe falls, it’s a really quite terrifying prospect.”
"Having got to a position where we are just getting our head above the water, really punching above our weight in terms of our ability to cope internationally… it seems as if we are sliding backwards very quickly."
According to the Russell Group, the prospective cuts could bring the 800 year-old higher education success story "to its knees".
They believe the consequences could be far reaching, and not just have an impact on education.
The massive cuts in university budgets "would have a devastating effect not only on students and staff, but also on Britain's international competitiveness, economy, and ability to recover from recession," Dr Piatt and Prof Arthur said.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the lecturers’ union (UCU) described the potential future of universities across the UK: “Unless these savage cuts are reversed, we face the very real prospect of many universities being forced to close, over 14,000 staff losing their jobs, and some of the biggest class sizes in the world.”
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