Universities need more support, but getting it will be a hard fight
The Telegraph called it a “lifeline” but sector leaders could be forgiven for considering it more of a straw to cling to. The government’s financial support package for universities, announced last week to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, has left higher education and research feeling markedly short-changed.
The £100 million in quality-related funding brought forward amounts to just five per cent of the QR top-up that Universities UK pitched for in a bailout request to the government, while an extra £2.6 billion brought forward in tuition fee payments to institutions will offer relief only in the short term. As universities try to grapple with the expected hit to fee income in the next academic year, this feels like a payday for Paul that will shortly leave institutions heavily exposed again.
Given the Treasury’s reluctance to commit to a large bailout, the optimistic reading of the measures on offer is as a first, but not last, package of support. There is perhaps some comfort here in the fine print of a Department for Education missive, which stated that the QR top-up is “to ensure research activities can continue during the crisis” and to “offset short-term impacts” caused by the pandemic. That leaves the door open to future measures.
Having to make repeated pleas for funding is not ideal, but when almost every sector of the economy has a case for support it is not unexpected. University and research leaders need to steel themselves for the long haul.
As former universities and science minister Chris Skidmore argued in a comment piece for Research Fortnight, there is some encouragement in the apparent recognition of QR as a worthy route for support. To turn this from a glimmer of light into something more sustaining, universities need to step up demonstrations of the benefits stemming from QR, in a way that plays to ministers’ stated priorities— ‘levelling up’ of regional economies, and now health and medical research.
Although it may seem an age ago, this government committed to reaching 2.4 per cent of GDP spent on R&D, and it hasn’t rowed back so far. But only the most naive expected that to be just more money down the same streams—so getting significantly more QR remains a challenge.
Another way in which the government could support the sector is by reaching an agreement to associate to the European Union’s next Framework Programme, Horizon Europe. Talks are due to resume this week. Amid a global crisis that calls for international collaborative research, the UK turning its back on its established EU partnerships would be unforgivable.
Once the predicted financial shortfalls faced by universities start to become reality, universities will undoubtedly need to look both to Westminster and inwardly for more solutions.
In all this, it should be remembered that this government, perhaps more than any other in recent times—and certainly more than its own confused messaging around coronavirus has often suggested—prizes its own narrative.
It may be frustrating when research work is so obviously at the front-line of efforts to tackle the pandemic, but to stand a chance of success, this is something the sector must stay alert to when framing calls for help.
This article also appeared in Research Fortnight