Government's university funding cuts mean thousands of students will miss out

11.45.00am GMT Wed 3rd Feb 2010

Madeleine Kirk, Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for York Outer, has said she is "outraged" that university funding cuts for the next financial year could mean that up to 230,000 young people will miss out on a university place.

Last year 160,000 university applicants were turned down due to the high demand for university places during the recession, as many young people felt that staying in education was a better option than looking for work. It is estimated that this year, up to 230,000 students might miss out on a university place because of universities restricting places due to reduced government funding.

In December last year Business Secretary Lord Mandelson announced that the government would be taking almost £400m out of university budgets, a combination of 'efficiency savings' and direct budget cuts.

Madeleine Kirk said: "You don't need a degree to realise that university funding cuts spell misery for future students. It is bad enough that the Labour government has broken a manifesto commitment not to introduce tuition fees.

"Now it seems likely that many aspiring students will be unable to attend university at all, due to universities being forced to slash the number of places they offer. Universities are faced with a stark choice of turning students away or offering them a poorer educational experience."

The UK currently lags behind other western countries in the percentage spent on funding Higher Education. Finland, Sweden, France, the US and Germany all spend more on higher education as a percentage of GDP than the UK, which spends just 0.9%.

Madeleine added: "University funding cuts should not be seen as 'inevitable' - it is all about priorities. If the government was prepared to scrap some of its costly pet projects, then we would not be in this situation.

"It is extremely short sighted of Labour ministers to cut university places and risk wasting the talent of thousands of young people. It is difficult to see how Britain will compete in the international skills market, if we cannot offer the best possible university education to all those with academic potential."

Notes:

The Government announced £398m of cuts to university funding for 2010 - 11 compared with 2009 - 10.

This is a combination of efficiency savings of £263m and a £135m budget reduction.

Of this figure, £84m will be taken from the capital funding budget and £51m from the teaching budget.