University funding ‘uncertain’, says Institute for Fiscal Studies

Universities in England receive 5 per cent less money per full-time undergraduate student than they did in 2012, but 50 per cent more than they got in the mid 1990s, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Universities currently receive £27,500 per undergraduate, the IfS reports in its second annual report on education spending in England, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The total cost of England’s higher education system is about £17 billion per cohort, it adds, with more than half of the cost expected to be paid for through graduate loan repayments (£9 billion).

The “long-run cost” to government is “expected to be about £8 billion” per cohort, comprising £7.4 billion of un-repaid student loans and £700 million in up-front grants, the IfS report, published today, finds.