Full funding of £300 million in recurrent Strategic Priorities Grant fails to materialise
The government has fallen tens of millions of pounds short of its pledge to invest an extra £300m in UK higher education via the Strategic Priorities Grant between 2022 and 2025.
In a policy statement published in February 2022, the Department for Education said that, as part of the 2021 Spending Review, “we are…investing an additional £300m in Strategic Priorities Grant recurrent funding across financial year 2022-23 to financial year 2024-25”.
However, an analysis of the recurrent funding allocated to the grant suggests the actual additional amount is only £262.6m—more than £37m short of the promised amount.
The policy statement was signed by then higher education minister Michelle Donelan and education secretary Nadhim Zahawi. The spending review took place in October 2021, when now prime minister Rishi Sunak was chancellor of the exchequer.
The DfE did not deny the figures, which were put to it by Research Professional News.
“We continue to provide significant financial support of nearly £6 billion per year to the higher education sector, plus more than £10bn per year in tuition fee loans,” a DfE spokesperson said.
“The Strategic Priorities Grant is designed to support universities to deliver high-cost courses and specific projects,” it added. “The funding we’ve allocated over the past two years along with funding for this financial year represents the largest increase in government funding for the higher education sector in over a decade.”
Joanna Burton, head of higher education policy at the Russell Group—which first raised concerns about the shortfall in a statement—said the 2024-25 settlement represented “a real-terms cut of over £50m” to the grant.
“It also appears that the government will fall short on its 2021 Spending Review commitment to invest an additional £300m in the Strategic Priorities Grant by this year,” she said.
“At a time when there is increasing concern about the long-term financial resilience of UK universities, and when vital cross-subsidy is at risk from changing immigration policy, we need a robust and consistent government approach to invest in the sector and harness it as a driver of UK productivity and growth.”