Hopes of £1 billion funding increase quashed

After weeks of hope that the UK scientific sector would see a funding boost, similar to that seen in the US, Darling's budget has come as a huge disappointment. The new budget does not contain any new money for places or research, although an existing commitment to ring-fence the science budget remains, an article in THES reports.

In a £400 million savings package, universities will be required to compete for grants. 'The £400 million in efficiency savings in further and higher education is expected to be found through the "use of benchmarking data, greater contestability, particularly in commissioning new programmes and services; reduced expenditure through lower than expected rates of inflation and the strategic reprioritisation and rephasing of programmes".'

Read the THES article in full.