Case for investment in universities - government Comprehensive Spending Review2015

On 21 July 2015 the Chancellor launched Spending Review 2015.  The Review will be published on 25 November and has the daunting challenge of setting out how the government will both invest in priority public services and deliver the £20 billion further savings required to eliminate Britain's deficit by 2019/20.

The Chief Secretary wrote to government departments asking them to draw up plans to deliver the remaining required consolidation (£20 billion). The letters asked departments to model two scenarios of 25% and 40% of savings within their resource budgets by 2019-20 in real terms.

So where does this leave Higher Education? The protected departments are: The NHS, International Development, Defence and Schools - but even here the the pledges do not refer to entire departmental budgets, but rather to some aspects of their spending. A briefing paper, entitled 'Background to the 2015 Spending Review' explains this further.

It is vital, therefore, that a case be made for investment in universities, and Universities UK has made an important submission.   UUK is calling for:

• funding for high-cost subjects in England (such as engineering and medicine) to not fall below current levels per student in real terms;
• sustained government investment in grants that help to widen participation and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds in England;
• increased investment in teaching capital to support the expansion and competitiveness of the sector;
• a long-term strategy to increase investment in R&D, to bring it closer to that of competitor countries;
• renewal of the science ring-fence, which offered vital protection to UK R&D in the last parliament;
• sustained support for funding streams like the Higher Education Innovation Fund (in England) that allow universities to drive innovation, invest in new and emerging areas and respond to changing needs.

The section that addresses 'Meeting the skills of the UK Labour Market' is particularly interesting.  The first major point in the Executive Summary states:  Through the teaching and training they provide, universities are essential to meeting current and future demand for higher level skills. This demand is projected to rise significantly in the next five years, with almost half of all jobs requiring some form of higher education by 2022. This has a direct connection with a House of Lords Select Committee of Digital Skills report, 'Make or Break: The UK's Digital Future'.