Budget will increase HE England-Wales Funding Gap

3.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 8th Nov 2007

"As it stands the Draft Budget will further the Higher Education funding gap in Wales" commented Welsh Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Education Kirsty Williams AM.

"The current funding gap is estimated to be £40 - £41 million in favour of England. If this gap increases further it will bring into question Wales' ability to compete with England in quality of Education delivery. This is not because we do not have a similarly high standard of Lecturers, Researchers and students but because we quite simply do not have the necessary invested to develop our high-quality institutions.

"With Wales 10th out of 12 in the nations and regions of the UK in the amount of teaching grant received per full time taught student we will fall further behind in the global Higher Education market.

"In order for our emerging knowledge based economy to further develop we need proper investment in the HE sector. The race to attract research staff is ever harder and requires funding of modern facilities and equipment, in turn without research staff it is difficult to compete against universities in England and beyond for tens of millions of pounds of research funding from European and UK bodies that would otherwise be lost to Wales and its economy.

"It is vital that the Labour-Plaid Government acts to narrow this funding gap by committing more funding to the HE sector. So progressing Wales' knowledge and research base and ultimately positively developing our economy, workforce and productivity."

Notes:

HEW Briefing states: The Assembly Draft Budget 2007 shows an annual average increase in the higher education budget of 0.66% in real terms between 2008-09 and 2010-11. The CSR settlement for 'HE and adult skills' in England over the same period shows an annual average increase in investment of 2% a year. In December 2007 this 'HE and adult skills' budget line will be broken down between 'HE' and 'adult skills by the Secretary of State, John Denham MP. It is likely, however, that the HE element in England will significantly exceed the 0.66% annual average increase in the Welsh HE budget.

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