£350m funding allocated to North East universities

Mar 6 2009 The Journal

UNIVERSITIES in the North East have been allocated funding worth almost £350m for the next academic year, reflecting their pioneering research work.

The biggest slice will go to Newcastle University, which is ranked 14th out of 130 higher education institutions nationally, with a grant of £105.1m.

Durham, ranked 25th nationally for its funding, will receive £70.2m and Northumbria University will get £67.5m for 2009/10.

In addition, Sunderland University will receive £42.4m and Teesside will receive £63.9m.

The annual grant award announcements, which cover both teaching and research funding, were revealed this week by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

For the first time, these allocations have been based on the outcome of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which was carried out in 2008.

The RAE produced a profile for each university on how well it performed in a variety of research areas and graded them accordingly.

All five North East universities have seen their funding for next year increase from the 2008/09 allocation, recognising their achievements in research fields. Northumbria University has seen its overall grant rise 5% from the previous year.

This follows impressive results from the RAE, which saw work from 11 out of 12 research areas being judged as “world-leading”. Eight of the nine schools of Northumbria University will now receive research funding from Hefce, compared to four previously.

Vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Wathey said: “Northumbria’s strong performance in RAE 2008 has now seen its reward in financial terms, and the university has received a very significant increase in its research funding.”

Newcastle University, which sees its grant increase by 3.5%, says the funding benefits everyone as its research often leads to breakthroughs in medicine.

A spokesman for Newcastle University said: “We welcome this increase in funding, which reflects the university’s excellence in teaching and, in particular, our strong performance in the recent RAE.

“Extra research funding is great news for the region because we help hundreds of local companies to develop new products and processes, using our world class research expertise.”

The HEFCE grant forms only part of Newcastle University’s funding. Money is also received from research councils, charities, tuition fees, endowments and other sources. Its total funding for 2007/08, for instance, was £342m.

Durham’s funding has increased by 4.5%, which means it will receive an extra £3m. From the overall grant of £70.2m, £25.3m will be spent on research.

Professor Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of Durham University, said: “This funding award reflects and will further enhance the excellent world-class research and teaching environment that Durham offers its students and staff.”

Sunderland’s funding grant has risen by 6.2% on last year and Teesside’s has increased by 10.2%.

This is in stark contrast to some universities in the country, including top institutions such as Cambridge, which have seen effective cuts in their funding with grant increases below the rate of inflation.

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