GuildHE CEO, Andy Westwood, said,
“The Spending Review for 2015-16 appears to be a ‘better than expected’ settlement for BIS. The cut at departmental level is significantly less than the expected 8-10% and is somewhere between 4.4 and 6% (when calculating against the 2014-15 baseline figure of 2014-5 and not accounting for inflation). This is clearly better news than we and many others expected.
“Specific announcements should be welcomed – the ring-fenced science and research budget and increases in science capital and funding for the TSB are good news.
“Less good are the reductions in funding for FE (£260m) and in the HE teaching grant (£45m). In both cases it is important that BIS works with both sectors to work out how to make the required savings. The effective abolition of the National Scholarship Programme is probably the most sensible way to save an additional £100m (and the shift of £50m to postgraduate education is to be welcomed).
“Finally it is also important to acknowledge that BIS still needs to find departmental savings of approximately £1 billion between now and 2014-15 before these new Spending Review announcements take effect.”
ENDS
For more information and comment:
Andy Westwood
Tel: 020 3393 6132
Email: andy.westwood@guildhe.ac.uk
Notes to editors
1. GuildHE is a recognised higher education representative body. For a list of GuildHE institutions, please visit: https://www.guildhe.ac.uk/membersÂ
2. The 2013 Spending Review documents can be found at