Class sizes threat as cuts bite at universities

By LAURA CLARK FOR THE DAILY MAIL
Updated:

Students will suffer bigger classes and crumbling facilities it was claimed last night after universities learned how the first cuts to their budgets for 13 years would affect them.

The squeeze will hit 100 universities - three-quarters of the total - and will mean 6,000 fewer degree course places are available to first-year undergraduates than last year, prompting an unprecedented scramble to get in.

As well as warning of larger class sizes, lecturers' leaders also said universities will be forced to shed jobs and put building projects on hold.

Funding cuts: Oxford University will be affected

Funding cuts: Oxford University will be affected

The claims were made after the Higher Education Funding Council outlined how cuts of £573million would be divided among them. Institutions to suffer include Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Imperial College, London.

Sir Alan Langlands, chief executive of the HEFCE, admitted it was 'conceivable' that budgets could be reduced even further.

Sally Hunt, of the University and College Union, said the cuts would lead to the loss of thousands of teaching jobs, leaving remaining staff with more students to teach and less time to spend with them.

Miss Hunt added: 'Anyone who thinks this won't massively impact on the quality of education in this country is living in a dream world.'

Across all universities, the London Business School saw the biggest overall budget cut, losing 13.9 per cent after taking into account inflation.

The biggest winner was the University of Worcester, with an 11.3 per cent increase.

The financial settlement emerged the day after Mary Curnock Cook, the chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, said tens of thousands of students with good A-levels would miss out on places and would be forced to go to university 'later in life'.

As many as 300,000 candidates now face being rejected from university.


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