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17 May 2011 09:08:17
Removing funding from modern universities will kill off research recognised as world-leading and internationally excellent – that’s the view of University of Bedfordshire Vice Chancellor Professor Les Ebdon CBE.
Professor Ebdon was speaking as chair of the think tank million+ at the launch today (Tuesday) of its report Research that Matters – an evaluation of university research funding in the UK.
The report concludes that if the Government concentrates even more research funding to a small number of universities, it will hamstring the Government's own objectives of promoting innovation, as well as economic growth at regional or national level.
Also, at the very time that the Government is seeking to open up undergraduate teaching to a ‘market’, there is a real risk that research funding may become a ‘closed shop’ with a further loss of the competition and dynamism that is a feature of other countries’ research funding regimes.
At the House of Commons event Professor Ebdon said: "Funding regimes continue to favour older and larger research departments and universities. However, there is no clear relationship between the size of an academic research team and the excellence of the outputs they produce.
“Here at Bedfordshire our research was commended in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise as ‘world-leading’ and also ‘internationally excellent’.
"Removing funding from modern universities like Bedfordshire will kill off research that has been recognised as world-leading and internationally excellent.
"It is also likely to involve the transfer of research funding to the South and East of England - where the universities with larger research departments are based - at the very time that regional economies elsewhere require greater stimulus."
Proponents of greater concentration of research funding argue a ‘critical mass’ of researchers, funding and research activity result in research excellence. Yet evidence suggests that extreme concentration of research funding is not the best situation for the UK as:
· Research excellence is widely distributed across universities and not confined to the institutions that receive the greatest quantities of funding.
· Maintaining public investment in a diverse array of institutions is important because proximity facilitates the development of research partnerships between universities, businesses, industry and public and third sector organisations.
· A diverse research base enhances the ability of universities to respond to new challenges and develop research in emerging disciplines and markets. This could prove crucial at a time of economic recovery.
· Pound-for-pound, modern university research departments provide better value for money from the very modest amounts of public funding they receive. For every £1 spent on university research by the higher education funding councils in 2008-09, modern universities leveraged £2.91 from other sources compared to £2.17 leveraged by Russell Group universities and £1.77 leveraged by 1994 Group universities. For every £1 of research council funding, modern universities leveraged £0.32 from UK industry, commerce and public corporations compared to £0.19 by other institutions.
· Modern universities lead the way in entrepreneurship and enterprise amongst research students. In 2007-08 modern universities supported 67 per cent of all graduate start-ups, 24 per cent of total staff spin-outs and 27 per cent all other spin-outs.
The full report "Research that Matters" can be found at www.millionplus.ac.uk
Latest news» 2011» May» Vice Chancellor calls on Government to avoid cull of world-class research
