{"id":11,"date":"2021-03-18T16:58:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T16:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/?p=11"},"modified":"2021-03-18T16:58:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T16:58:45","slug":"research-funding-shortfalls-and-ofs-warnings-on-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/2021\/03\/18\/research-funding-shortfalls-and-ofs-warnings-on-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"Research funding shortfalls and OfS warnings on quality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>RESEARCH FUNDING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hepi.ac.uk\/2021\/03\/15\/goals-based-rd-policy-high-popularity-low-effectiveness-what-is-the-likelihood-of-the-uk-reaching-its-target-of-spending-2-4-of-gdp-on-rd-by-2027\/\">study<\/a> hosted on the HEPI blog warns that the UK is likely to miss its target of spending 2.4% of GDP on research and development by 2027. The Russell Group of universities has <a href=\"https:\/\/russellgroup.ac.uk\/news\/russell-group-calls-for-clarity-on-funding-for-uk-science-and-research\/\">written<\/a> to the Prime Minister asking for greater clarity on the future of research funding, citing a mismatch between the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/global-britain-in-a-competitive-age-the-integrated-review-of-security-defence-development-and-foreign-policy\">government\u2019s ambitions<\/a> in this area and the funding available. Universities UK has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.universitiesuk.ac.uk\/news\/Pages\/govt-must-urgently-reconsider-research-budget-cuts.aspx\">written<\/a> in similar terms.<\/p>\n<p>Significant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/news\/ukri-required-to-review-official-development-assistance-funding\/\">cuts to projects<\/a> supported (many via UKRI) by the government\u2019s now-reduced overseas development aid budget continue to cause widespread <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeshighereducation.com\/news\/uk-science-reputation-risk-cuts-raise-strategy-questions\">disquiet<\/a>. Wonkhe has some <a href=\"https:\/\/wonkhe.com\/wonk-corner\/what-projects-does-the-ukri-oda-budget-cut-put-at-risk\/?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Wonkhe%20Mondays%20-%2015%20March&amp;utm_content=Wonkhe%20Mondays%20-%2015%20March+CID_2df943fd5c06d9a1dc43c4a140313560&amp;utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&amp;utm_term=took%20a%20look%20at%20which%20projects%20at%20each%20university%20might%20be%20at%20risk\">analysis<\/a> of the projects likely to be at risk.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, THE has noticed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeshighereducation.com\/features\/how-far-can-eu-universities-ride-post-covid-spending-wave\">trend in Europe<\/a> towards significant increases in research and innovation expenditure.<\/p>\n<p>For an overview of research funding issues, the House of Commons Library has a great <a href=\"https:\/\/commonslibrary.parliament.uk\/research-briefings\/cdp-2021-0035\/\">briefing<\/a> on the future of R&amp;D funding.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>QUALITY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>OfS has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.officeforstudents.org.uk\/news-blog-and-events\/press-and-media\/be-sensible-with-admissions-to-secure-quality-ofs-warns\/\">warned<\/a> universities not to sacrifice quality in order to increase student intake. The regulator has said that it is prepared to intervene in cases where this occurs. This comes whilst THE <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeshighereducation.com\/news\/ofs-investigates-conditional-unconditional-offer-ban-breaches\">reports<\/a> that some English universities may be breaching the ban on the use of \u201cconditional unconditional\u201d offers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>SECTOR NEWS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smf.co.uk\/publications\/study-buddies\/\">report from the Social Market Foundation<\/a> says that universities and colleges should be collaborating more and suggests a number of ways this could be achieved.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hepi.ac.uk\/2021\/03\/17\/bahram-bekhradnia-the-white-paper-on-free-speech-is-intellectually-flimsy\/\">HEPI blog post<\/a>, Bahram Bekhradia makes an argument for the \u201cintellectual flimsiness\u201d of the government\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hepi.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Free-Speech-and-Censorship-on-Campus.pdf\">White Paper<\/a> on free speech and academic freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RESEARCH FUNDING A study hosted on the HEPI blog warns that the UK is likely to miss its target of spending 2.4% of GDP on research and development by 2027. The Russell Group of universities has written to the Prime...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1542,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1542"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/council-digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}