It is expected that the first cuts to university budgets will be announced by the government before the increase of tuition fees is introduced. The government has already established a timetable for universities to begin cutting the budget. Although lobbying from Universities UK called for the cuts to be delayed until April 2012, David Willets claimed that the cut of universities budget would begin earlier. The cuts are expected to be up to £400m that equals to 40% from the universities budget and 80% to the teaching budget.
As the time of introducing cuts and tuition fees is not synchronized, the government risks to face a new resistance in a battle to reform higher education. As many universities would no longer receive money from the government, some of them could end up bankrupts. Others would have to stay up with less income and this will likely decrease the quality of the courses.
The government raises fees and introduces cuts which make students worry about their future. However, the government accepts the accusations of aiming at withdrawing money from the university sector. It believes that private involvement will make higher education flourish.
Willetts wrote in his
essay : "We expect them (universities) to make serious efficiency savings, but the £400m is proportionately far less than most areas of government are spending. The more competitive they can become, the better they will be able to attract students in the following year."
Gareth Thomas raised an objection to this suggestion: "Just when we thought things couldn't get worse for students, the government is cutting funding to universities. Inevitably it will have an impact on the quality of courses and on lecturers and it is further bad news for universities."
