Welsh assembly members push for more university funding

Welsh universities will lag behind institutions in England and Scotland unless the Welsh government significantly increases their funding, the National Assembly’s Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee has said.

In a report released on 11 April, the committee said the Welsh government should provide its universities with £85 million a year to enable them to effectively compete for funding from the umbrella funding body UK Research and Innovation.

This was a key recommendation of a review carried out last year by Graeme Reid, professor of research policy at University College London, on behalf of the Welsh government. In his report, published in June 2018, Reid pointed out that, relative to its share of the UK population, research in Wales is underfunded, and called for this imbalance to be redressed.