Higher education body reveals austerity measure for this current financial year will go ahead despite promises
Universities and colleges are being forced to do without £82m that the government had promised them for the current financial year, it has emerged.
The cut will come out of institutions' teaching grants and was revealed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), which distributes public funds on behalf of the government.
Vice-chancellors and principals were told by how much their individual teaching budgets were being reduced on Tuesday, but will only discover tomorrow how the entire higher education sector has fared.
Some complained it is too late notice to impose cuts, given the financial year started in April. Professor Simon Gaskell, principal of Queen Mary, University of London, said the cuts, and their timing, introduced "uncertainty that was crippling" for universities. He said: "It is ironic that universities have been urged to plan well when what immediately follows is a sabotaging of that in the current financial year."
The cuts coms as campuses struggle to deal with a more than £1bn reduction to their budgets between now and the end of 2013 and higher education faces the harshest financial climate in more than a decade. University leaders have warned the cuts will lead to larger class sizes, further job cuts and a deterioration in quality.
It has also emerged 60 universities and further education colleges are being penalised £15.67m for over-recruiting 4,235 students this year. Data given to the Guardian by Hefce, which gives universities and colleges public funds on behalf of the government, reveals that some institutions, such as De Montfort University in Leicester, are being fined as much as £3.38m for taking on 913 students too many. Hertfordshire University has to pay £1.86m for over-recruiting 502 students, while Edge Hill University in Lancashire is being fined almost £1m for recruiting 268 students too many.
The cuts to each university's teaching budget amounts to a just over a 1% reduction on what universities were told they would receive in March. But this means that some, such as Manchester University, stand to lose more than £1m. The University of Oxford will receive £648,780 less than it was told it would in March, while Queen Mary will have £631,240 less. It comes after the government said it wanted the quality of teaching to be just as high a priority as the quality of research at universities. Hefce said 163 universities and colleges would have reduced funds for 2010-11 on what they were told they would receive in March.
Bahram Bekhradnia, director of thinktank the Higher Education Policy Institute, said £82m was a lot to lose. "This comes after universities have made their plans for the financial year," he said. "It is a manifestation of the economic situation we are in, but it is jolly hard to run a university year-to-year not knowing what money you have."
But Professor Julia King, vice-chancellor of Aston University, said universities had not been as efficient as they could have been. "We have to share the pain. Some pressure to deliver cost reductions does no harm," she said.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the government was committed to increasing the number of people with high-level skills in a managed way even in difficult economic times.
He said: "It is essential that the growth in student numbers is properly managed in order to ensure students get a quality university experience and the public finances can meet their additional cost. Universities have known for two years that funding would be recouped to cover the cost of supporting additional students recruited above their agreed allocation."