University budgets to be slashed by up to 14%
More than three-quarters of universities in England are to have their budgets cut for this September – some by nearly 14%, triggering warnings of larger class sizes, further job cuts and a deterioration in the quality of courses.
The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are among 99 institutions that will be forced to cope with reduced state funding for the next academic year, as colleges prepare for the harshest financial climate in more than a decade.
Universities have not witnessed cuts on this scale since 1997, the government agency in charge of distributing public money to them – the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) – admitted yesterday …