Author of post-18 education funding review says Covid-19 has underlined importance of research base
University research needs to be funded “openly, generously and strategically” as the UK emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, the author of influential Augar review of post-18 education funding has said.
Writing in the Financial Times on 8 May, Philip Augar said the importance of the country’s research base had been “underlined during this crisis”.
“UK research is globally renowned,” he said, but added that the current system of funding that relies on student fees to cross-subsidise research has led to an under-investment in science degrees and over-reliance on overseas student fees that necessitated last week’s ‘bailout’ for the sector.
“In future, university research needs to be funded openly, generously and strategically, not partly via the back door,” he said, referring to the fact that much of research is currently subsidised from tuition fees.
Elsewhere in the article, the former banker appeared to backtrack on the review’s recommendation that the tuition fee cap in England should be slashed from £9,250 to £7,500 a year.