Press Releases

University funding from Hefce

Release Date : 18 March 2010

The University of Reading's funding settlement from Hefce for 2010/11 is in line with the University's expectations and accords with the University's financial forecasts for the coming year.

The University had anticipated the reduction in Government funding and has for the past nine months been working with our staff towards saving £10.6 million by 2012 through a reshaping exercise.

The reshaping project, which is designed to sustain the reputation of the University as a leading research-intensive and internationally-recognised centre of excellence for scholarship and learning, seeks to ensure that the University is well placed to compete for future research funding and to meet the current economic challenges facing the sector and the economy. To date, the University has identified around £9 million of the savings needed.

The major component of the reduction in the University's 2010/11 Hefce funding is the one-year-only moderation payment of £3.7 million which the University received for 2009/10 as a result of the re-distribution of research income related to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).  In the RAE, in a number of units of assessment, our research excellence and improved performance was rewarded with funding cuts, while we performed disappointingly in units where funding pots were increased.

We have worked hard to adapt the University to the harsher economic climate for higher education nationally and which we expect to worsen in coming years. There is a clear need for prudent planning and playing to our strengths in this process and we are determined to ensure that the University of Reading emerges from this process in a stronger position, with the University's reputation as a leading, research-intensive centre of excellence for scholarship, teaching and learning enhanced.

ENDS

Hefce funding accounts for less than a quarter of the University's total income.