Liz Bromley, Acting CEO of University Alliance commented:
“This review clearly creates some significant policy challenges for government at an already very difficult time. While it is in the public interest that our National Accounts should be as accurate as possible and show a fair reflection of the costs of higher education, we should not let the tail wag the dog. The public interest would not be well served if we were to allow accounting practice to undermine the funding of higher education – we still need to properly support the advanced skills and knowledge our economy needs to thrive, to ensure learning resources keep pace with modern methods and to help students to meet their costs of living.
The vital national importance of a qualified, skilled workforce of the future has not changed as a result of today’s announcement. Delivering this must be the primary focus of the Review of post-18 Education Funding and the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review. University Alliance will be working with our partners in both the FE and HE sector to make the case for overall total investment in tertiary education, particularly skills, technical education and industrial strategy.”
