The UK’s economic climate is more uncertain than ever – but how will it impact students at the University of Edinburgh and beyond? As funding cuts tighten their grip on precious resources, university services for students, and staff, are set to decline in both quality and quantity. Many students already struggle to afford higher education; if universities cut funding, is costly higher education still appealing, or even worth the investment?
In 2021, the university received a £64 million teaching grant from the Scottish Government, although this still left the administration in a budget short fall and required the university to rely on cross-subsidies. Furthermore, the growing need for universities to keep up with advancing technology and modern architectural developments places significant financial strain on them. This is potentially causing stagnant progress in the development and funding of student services, a stagnation that has led to a, rather unfortunate (although ultimately predictable), rating of 73 per cent student satisfaction.
Universities are expensive businesses to run. I get that. The university will undoubtedly spend thousands, or more likely millions, on energy costs across campuses every year. Furthermore, the average cost of educating an undergraduate student per year has been demonstrated to vary massively. An undergraduate medicine student typically costs £23,500 to educate per annum, whereas a humanities student costs £10,500. If cuts continue, this may result in a reduced quality of teaching and resources provided for stem students in labs. Potentially, one could go as far as to say fewer stem students may be admitted to the university as budget cuts will reduce capacity.
Things are not looking so great for Edinburgh, but if we extend our vision to the rest of the country, it seems that smaller universities are gaining more support during this cost of living crisis. For instance, Northumbria University has seen an increase in income streams, with Research Grants and Contract Income increasing from £1.7 million to £18.1 million in 2023-24. However, despite external grants, the university’s total group income has decreased from £382.1 million to £377.6 million in 2023-24. This means that, despite increasing funding in certain sectors, income is still suffering for many universities across the UK.
Unfortunately, if funding does not increase for universities in the near future, many prospective students may be hesitant to attend major academic institutions. Universities lack the resources to deal with significant issues, such as gender-based violence on campus or counselling services for students, and the quality of student life is undoubtedly taking a blow – especially at Edinburgh. Not only will teaching quality decline, but university support and university buildings will simply not be able to continue operating.
“Adult and community education rally to protest government funding cuts” by Tertiary Education Union (NZTEU) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.