Million Plus

The funding allocations have been announced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) for the 2014-15 academic year. A combination of lower funding from the government and a requirement to protect research budgets means the cuts will come in the provision of teaching.

Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive, million+ was quoted in the Guardian story: "The background detail of the allocations is extremely complex, in part as the result of the mix of 'old regime' students still in the system, changes in student numbers and the attempts by Hefce to ensure that no one funding area takes more of a hit than others."

"However, there's no disguising the fact that overall funding for universities will decline in real terms by 2015."

Professor Madeleine Atkins, Chief Executive of HEFCE  commented that "the board has made some difficult decisions, balancing several competing interests."

"We are asking the sector to do more with fewer resources, but, with care, the reductions are manageable."

The announcement of the funding settlement also included an additional 30,000 undergraduates studying at universities in England from September 2014, in anticipation of the government's decision in the autumn statement to remove the cap on student numbers entirely from 2015.

Read the full story on the Guardian, here.

@guardian