The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Autumn Budget Statement and Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), announced yesterday, encompassed a number of issues related to higher education including at least one major announcement of direct significance to the University of Southampton.
National Infrastructure Laboratory
The UK Government gave the go ahead for a £138m UK Collaboratorium for Research in Infrastructure and Cities network in which the University of Southampton will play a major role in transforming the UK’s major infrastructure sectors. Southampton’s part in the initiative is a new £36m National Infrastructure Laboratory to be based at the Boldrewood Innovation Campus. For more information click here.
Student Nurses
The Government also announced it is to remove the cap on the recruitment of student nurses and replace bursaries for student nurses with loans.
The move was welcomed by Dame Professor Jessica Corner, Dean of Health Sciences who said:
“Carefully implemented, this should allow universities in partnership with the NHS to increase the number of training places and also improve day-to-day financial support for students while they are studying. The plan means that students will have access to more day-to-day maintenance support through the loans system and recognises that these disciplines are higher cost, science-based subjects.”
Higher Education sector
Amongst the sector-wide announcements included in his statement the Chancellor, George Osborne, confirmed:
- the Government’s continued commitment to funding science, with changes afoot to the way research is administered following the recommendations of the Nurse Review, led by Professor Sir Paul Nurse;
- overall reductions to teaching funding of £120 million by 2019-20 but a Government commitment to maintaining funding in real-terms for high-cost subjects, including STEM subjects which are key to economic growth;
- plans to review the Research Excellence Framework in order to examine how to simplify and strengthen funding on the basis of excellence;
- fee loans of £10,000 for postgraduate students (under 60 years of age) from 2016-17;
- the introduction of maintenance loans for part-time students and broadened support for students studying second degrees in STEM-related subjects.
There are, of course, numerous other areas within the Statement and the CSR that could impact on the University – many of them positively – and discussions will continue with the appropriate government departments going forward.