NCUB Responds To Further Cuts To Strategic Priorities Grant Funding

Dr Joe Marshall

These continued cuts raise serious questions about whether higher education is being recognised as the strategic national asset it is. Strategic Priorities Grant funding underpins the high-cost and specialist courses that develop the talent, skills and capability the UK needs to compete. Cutting investment in that capacity sends the wrong signal at a time when the Government is rightly prioritising economic growth and productivity.

The Government has identified advanced manufacturing, life sciences, clean energy and other high-growth sectors as central to its growth ambitions. But those ambitions depend on a strong pipeline of highly skilled graduates from disciplines such as engineering, healthcare and the sciences. Strategic Priorities Grant funding helps sustain that pipeline. Continued reductions risk undermining the talent base that businesses will rely on to drive long-term growth.

Against that backdrop, we welcome the decision to protect Higher Education Innovation Funding. While it is too early to know exactly where the wider reductions in Strategic Priorities Grant funding will be felt, maintaining investment in HEIF recognises the vital role of university-business collaboration and provides important stability for the partnerships that drive research, innovation and economic growth.