UNIVERSITIES across the region will lose a staggering £162m from their teaching budgets next year, research suggests.
The cuts offer insight into why many vice-chancellors believe a near-trebling of student fees is the only solution to the funding crisis.
The party commissioned research by the House of Commons library into the impact of Government plans to cut the teaching budget for the country’s 208 universities and colleges from £7.1bn to £4.2bn by 2014.
It found the biggest percentage reduction would be at the University of Sunderland, which was expected to lose £25.8m – or 83 per cent.
But all the region’s higher education institutions will be big losers, including Teesside University (70.2 per cent), Durham University (63.3 per cent) and the University of York (66.6 per cent).
The University of Newcastle (a 44.1 per cent cut) is projected to be hit less hard, presumably because courses such as science medicine, engineering and maths will continue to receive some funding.
But York St John University College, which mainly teaches arts subjects, is predicted to lose all its budget – which would make it entirely dependent on fees.
John Denham, Labour’s business spokesman, said: “The Government has produced the worst of all possible worlds. Higher education funding should be a partnership between taxpayers and graduates, but this announcement shatters that deal.
“Universities will need to charge fees of at least £7,500 just to avoid losing money, so those that can’t will be forced to cut quality and dumb down. Most students will be paying off debts for 30 years.”
The research comes only days after the Con-Lib coalition triggered a storm by proposing a near-trebling of annual student fees, from £3,290 a year to a maximum of £9,000, from 2012.
A Department for Business spokesman said: “We cannot verify the figures. The information is incorrect.” A spokesman for the University of Sunderland said: “It is still too premature to discuss what is going to happen following the announcement of the Browne Report and the Comprehensive Spending Review.”
A Newcastle University spokesman said: “The university has not yet decided on the level of tuition fees and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.” Professor Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of Durham University, said: “I have already reassured our staff and students that Durham is as well prepared as it can be to manage any change to the overall funding regime.
“We are determined to ensure we are suitably prudent in any period of uncertainty to safeguard the excellence in research, education and student experience we offer.”
Region’s students join education fees demo
STAFF and students from across the region will travel to London today to protest against cuts to higher education funding and higher student fees.
Students from the universities of Durham, Sunderland, Northumberland, Newcastle, Teesside and York, and from further education colleges in the region, will take part in the demonstration organised by the University and College Union and the National Union of Students.
They will join thousands of students marching through London and past the Houses of Parliament, before a rally in Millbank.
The march comes as University and College Union figures show the annual cost of studying for a degree has risen by 300 per cent in the past two decades.
By 2012-13 – the year the new tuition fee cap comes in – the study suggests that the annual cost will increase by a further 100 per cent.
North-East regional official Iain Owens said: “These proposals go too far. The rest of the world is investing in education yet we’re doing the opposite.
“College grants are often the difference between some students being able to study or and university students are expected to shoulder the burden of cuts to teaching grants.”
Joe Anderson, president of Guisborough’s Prior Pursglove College Students Union, said: “I hope Lib Dem MPs follow their promise to vote against these proposed rises.
“Many students worry that with fees of up to £9,000 a year, they will not be able to afford to go to university.”
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, said students had his full support.
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