Universities minister warns of Augar’s impact on research

The ability of universities to conduct leading research could be hampered by a potential loss of income caused by the implementation of the Augar review’s recommendations, Chris Skidmore has said.

The science and universities minister said on 19 June that he strongly opposed reducing annual tuition fees from £9,250 to £7,500 as recommended by Philip Augar in the review of post-18 education funding, if the funding shortfall is not covered by the Treasury.

Universities have estimated that a fee cut of that level could leave an £1.8-billion hole in institutions’ budgets, if the difference in income is not made up by the Treasury. Universities could then be forced to slash research spending to make up the shortfall, science policy experts have warned.