Funding cut for design and art universities
Top design universities are dismayed at the news that they are to have their research funding cut by The Higher Education Funding Council for England.
The Royal College of Art, University of the Arts, University of Sussex and Ravensbourne College of Design and Communications are among those that will see losses of millions of pounds to their grants.
University of the Arts London’s pro-rector, research and enterprise professor Keith Bardon says that the ‘Government is shooting itself in the foot’ by ‘ignoring the creative industries’.
He says the decision to reduce the university’s research grant from £9.7m to £6.2m contradicts Government claims of championing the creative industries.
‘The university’s knowledge-transfer projects, which have seen us partner with creative businesses to give them access to the very latest arts, design and communication thinking, may also suffer because of this short-sighted decision,’ he says.
The position of science subjects is being protected, according to HEFCE, with £25m being provided for ‘very-high-cost laboratory subjects’.
HEFCE has announced that it will allocate £7994m to universities and colleges in 2009-10, representing an overall increase of 4 per cent from the previous year.
The University of Nottingham has seen an increase in its grant to almost £10m, while Loughborough University will see an additional £6.25m and the University of Kent will gain an extra £3.9m.
For the full list of university funding allocations, see www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2009/grant0910.
This is typical of companies and organisations who have no vision. In difficult times as we have now, is precisely when you need to keep creative developments going. Design and creative teams everywhere should maintain a high level of momentum and be prepared for the good times. I suppose I should expected this kind of action from people who don’t understand the creative processes. It will mean a panic “cold start” when this recession is over. TC