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I read with disdain bordering upon horror an article on the BBC website today titled: Top UK universities warn of damage from budget cuts.
I will be the first to say that public funding for university places needs looking at particularly in respect of some of the degrees subjects that are funded by the public purse. That is an altogether different discussion.
Higher Education and Science based courses must out of sheer national necessity be ring fenced for funding and the so called credit crunce must not be used as an excuse. The solutions to many of the problems that we have in modern day life including the economy lie in science and education, there is no doubt in my mind about that.
I have to agree with the quote from the Russell Group:
If politicians don't act now, they will be faced with meltdown in a sector that is vital to our national prosperity.
And from the main block of the article;
"Nicolas Sarkozy has just announced an investment of 11bn euros in higher education in France, stating he wants 'the best universities in the world'," it said.
"Germany pumped a total of 18bn euros into promoting world-class research alongside university education, while Barack Obama ploughed an additional US$21bn into federal science spending."
….. General secretary of the University and College Union Sally Hunt said her union had already identified over 5,000 jobs at risk in higher education and that it was now looking at thousands more.
"Unless these savage cuts are reversed, we face the very real prospect of many universities being forced to close, over 14,000 staff losing their jobs and some of the biggest class sizes in the world," she said.
Other countries get it and the union is giving information on how bad the problem could be. The effects of this on science and technology research and spending in the United Kingdom could be devastating.
