The way that university research is funded in the UK is unstainable.
This was the case in 1998 when the Wellcome Trust, in partnership with the Blair government, bailed out universities through the Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF). And it is still the case 25 years later with Paul Nurse concluding in his review of the research, development, and innovation landscape that “the financial sustainability of the public research funding for universities needs to be urgently addressed.”
The data speak for themselves. According to OfS data, in 2020-21 research lost universities in England and Northern Ireland about £4 billion – a deficit that was largely made up by international student fees. In an environment when the unit of resource for domestic students is declining (fees for undergraduates in England have been fixed since 2017 at £9,250, lately in a period of double-digit inflation) and there is political anxiety about increases in premium fee-paying international students, universities find themselves in a very difficult place.
Nurse recommends a wholesale review of the research funding system, including competitive grants and quality related (QR) funding, with a view to ensuring that all “end to end” aspects of the research endeavour are funded sustainably.
