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Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick comments on latest university funding news

Professor Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick, gave the following comment on today's funding news (23rd December 2009):

"University Vice-Chancellors understand that public spending is likely to be constrained for the foreseeable future but that does not mean that we were expecting such a savage reverse Christmas present. A £553 million cut is a considerable blow to a sector that is central to economic recovery. Our Universities are world-leading institutions that generate new skills, innovations and technologies; are drivers of future economic growth, and produce new thinking and hard science that will be crucial to meeting global challenges such as climate change."

"Universities are concerned  that these funding cuts come hand-in-hand with what seems to be a series of new regulatory initiatives that seek to prescribe what and how universities should teach and how they should be managed. We believe that our Universities are valued as responsible and mature institutions whose role in the economy and the cultural life of the nation is well understood. This latest funding letter suggests that that is no longer a universal view"

For further information please contact:

Peter Dunn, Head of Communications
Communications Office, University House,
University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 8UW, United Kingdom   
email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk 
Tel: +44 (0)24 76 523708  Mobile/Cell:  +44 (0)7767 655860

23rd December 2009