Ryan Leonard, London Socialist Students

For the second academic year in a row, the government is poised to cut £100 million of university funding from high-cost and priority subjects, including nursing.

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced that the strategic priorities grant will be cut to £1.25 billion (£1.45 billion in 2024-25), in a move that pushes the burden of funding higher education even more firmly onto individual students through their fees and a lifetime of debt.

The Russell Group, 24 prestigious research universities, have responded by calling into question how this latest cut will impact the government’s stated aim of growth. They amplify the role universities can play in “delivering much needed economic growth, innovation and jobs.”

The £336 million in capital funding promised by DfE shows a fundamental misunderstanding of higher education. Universities aren’t renovated buildings, they are made up by the people working, teaching and studying there. New buildings and equipment won’t bring back redundant staff or convince working-class students to get a degree.

Like required reading, few students ever read the contract they sign with student finance, but a recent NUS survey suggests that a third of students now believe getting a degree is not worth the time and money.

These students have recognised that, after the impact of funding cuts and increased debts, their degrees have simultaneously risen in cost and fallen in value over successive years.

Many universities are now faced with a choice: how will they make up the shortfall? A favoured target to cut is student services and welfare programmes, seen as non-academic non-essential services. At my university, Brunel, in 2022 an engineering student Jos Winfield took his own life, resulting from poor mental health brought on by the pressures of university life. His father is adamant the university should have done more. The budget for student welfare has decreased markedly since that time.

One thing is clear, as the funding model for higher education places more strain on students mentally and financially, many more students will be placed into an even more vulnerable and precarious position.

We say:

• We need free education, with full funding not more fees! Scrap student debt and provide maintenance grants we can live on
• No course closures and job cuts. Take the wealth off the super-rich to provide decent education for all, with university staff paid what they deserve