In what has been a difficult year for Higher Education Institutes, we are pleased to note that government funding to the University has increased by 1.2% to £41,568,000, a rate of increase half as large again as the average for Scottish universities of 0.8%.
Responding to the news, Professor C. Duncan Rice, Principal of the University, commented:
“This is in line with our expectations and reflects our performance in the Teaching Quality Assessment and Research Assessment Exercise where we made good progress. While we welcome the above average cash increase, we recognise that the settlement does not fully reflect the cost to the University of anticipated pay and price inflation and, as for all institutions, represents a net reduction in real terms.
This emphasises that the University’s long-term objective must be to reduce our dependency on public funds so that we are less vulnerable to the continuing reduction in Government funds. We are therefore pleased that, currently, our competitively won research grant and contact income is showing a healthy increase of 16% year on year and we are likely to achieve an income this year in excess of £22 million.”