I have now received a further communication from the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills, where it suggests that I am incorrect about the amount of £40 million being taken from the budgets of Open University and Birkbeck after 3 years. The missive I have received suggests that only £13million will be subtracted from the budgets of these two universities before then and that even then there will be transitional protection for OU and Birkbeck.
I reproduce the email in full below so that my readers can judge for themselves!
Mr Donald Hedges,
Thank you for your further email of 8 November, about our decision to redistribute institutional funding away from “second degree” students towards those entering Higher Education (HE) for the first time.
You suggest that £40 million of the £100 million we plan to redistribute by 2010-11 will come out of the budgets of the Open University (OU) and Birkbeck. This is not the case.
Firstly, the combined share of the £100 million to be redistributed which is attributable to these institutions will be closer to £13 million in 2010-11. Their combined annual income from all sources is well over £400 million. The £40 million figure which you mention is a steady state figure but we have never said we will reach steady state after only three years.
Secondly, the HE Funding Council for England is proposing to provide transitional protection so that no institution will lose grant in cash terms. I accept that neither the OU nor Birkbeck is currently in favour of our policy. However, I believe we are doing the right thing for the reasons I set out previously. But, as far as the pace of change is concerned, it appears that somebody is guilty of what has memorably been called ‘premature extrapolation’.
What happens after 2010-11 has yet to be decided and we are happy to talk to institutions about how quickly they should be expected to adapt to our new policies.
I hope this further information has clarified the position.
JOHN DENHAM
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