Scientific adviser insists government is not ‘blasé about the degree of distress in the sector’
The UK Treasury has insisted that a potential university bailout package is “still on our to-do list” but that there is “no new money at this stage”.
Speaking during a House of Commons Science and Technology Committee hearing on 5 June, the Treasury’s chief scientific adviser Philip Duffy acknowledged that universities were facing a “very difficult set of situations” during the coronavirus crisis, particularly research-intensive institutions that rely on overseas student fees to cross-subsidise research.
“The situation in universities right now is that we have seen slowdowns in research, so many research groups face a drop-off and we’ve been working with universities to make sure they can access appropriately the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and other furlough money,” he told MPs.
However, he added, “what we don’t know…is how long that will go on for and how severe it will be and what the most appropriate range of support might be for universities”.
Commenting on the possibility of a larger university bailout package, Duffy said the government was “conscious that this is still on our to-do list and we don’t rule out looking again at this problem later in the year”.
He insisted that the government was not “blasé about the degree of distress in the sector”, telling MPs: “We’re well aware of the level of very real challenge that many institutions face.”
Duffy described the universities sector as one of the “jewels in the UK economy” that offers potential to boost growth across the whole of the country.
He added that the Treasury is not “deaf to reason on universities”. “We are listening very closely to what they have to say, we’re thinking very hard about what the most appropriate set of options would be for universities,” he said. “I don’t think you’ll find an official in the Treasury who doesn’t appreciate their importance towards the economy.”
Duffy’s comments come after the government pulled forward £100m of quality-related research funding and advanced £2.5bn of tuition fee payments to institutions. However, the money was only about 5 per cent of what institutions had said was needed to support research during the pandemic.