UK Autumn Budget Balances Science Investment, Falls Short for Higher Education Sector
Budget

The nation’s scientific and educational spheres have differed on their reviews of the recent autumn budget presented in the UK. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the budget reassuring that funding for research and development (R&D) activities would be retained, a step which most of the scientists haven’t taken to complain about. However, those who represent higher education institutions were disappointed and said there was a lack of additional funding to cater for the needs of the universities.

In her first budget address after the victory of the Labor party in the elections, Reeves promised an average real growth of 6.5% on science funding over the next two years. The increase raises the annual R&D expenditure of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to £13.9 billion by the year 2026, which includes core research of £6.1 billion and £2.7 billion for the research association with E.U countries.

The President of the Royal Society, Adrian Smith, referred to the budget as very good news to the science community, supporting research and innovation as crucial to the economic growth of the country. The Chief Executive of the Russell Group, Tim Bradshaw, also appreciated the emphasis on R&D resources, stressing the importance of their focus on the government’s other strategic areas such as the industrial strategy. Nevertheless, he pointed out that the increase in employer national insurance contribution which is set to rise by 1.2% causes university funding constraints.

Raj Jethwa, who serves as the CEO of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, expressed worries concerning the financial repercussions, projecting an additional load of £372 million to the payroll of this sector that is already under pressure from recent increases in pensions and low student numbers. These worries were echoed by Jo Grady, General Secretary of the University and College Union, who called the budget thin gruel for the universities. Grady also expressed disappointment regarding the lack of additional investment in the public education system, arguing that effective investments into higher education over a period of time are required in order for the nation to recover.

On the other hand, the budget does allocate an amount of £11.2 billion to the school system in England by 2026 with real growth to increase by 3.5% over the years. It has expansion procedures for the basic school budget by 2.3 billion pounds and additional support for further education by 300 million pounds aimed at recruiting an additional 6500 teachers in areas facing shortages like chemistry.

The budget has set aside 3.9 billion dollars to fund projects that aim at carbon capture technologies and also announced assistance aimed at three hydrogen production plants in Scotland and Wales. Students and graduates of the higher education sectors in economy and environmental science are encouraged to invest in such green technology. Tanya Sheridan of the Royal Society of Chemistry appeared happy with the announcement and expansion of green

technology revenues, stating that it is necessary when looking at growth markets such as gasketing life science and carbon capture. Still, she pointed out to the support that ought to be provided to the higher education sector with an emphasis on the need to strengthen the skills needed for the UK economy to thrive in the foreseeable future.

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