, the Director of the Higher
Education Policy Institute, said:
‘The slowdown in planned public spending on research and
development is disappointing. Unlike other areas of government
spending, when it comes to research, public funding “crowds in”
rather than “crowds out” private funding. So the road towards the
long-standing commitment to spend 2.4% of GDP on R&D – which
is only the OECD average, so not actually very ambitious – just
got bumpier still.
‘It is a shame because, as the Prime Minister said during his
party conference speech, public and private sectors working
together on the innovations of the future is how to maintain the
UK’s relative global standing. Indeed, without cutting-edge
research, there would be no COVID jabs, more environmental damage
and slower economic growth.
‘However, it is also important to see the new numbers in the
round. If the Chancellor had never put the figure of £22 billion
public spending on research by 2024/25 in the public domain, as
he did last year, then we would regard today’s numbers as a big
increase in the commitment to science and research, and I am
pleased to see that the 2.4% commitment lives to fight another
day. Even after today’s announcement, the increase in spending is
impressive, although in truth that is partly only because our
starting point on research spending is so low compared to our
competitors.
‘Overall, the new Science Minister will need to work hard to
allay concerns that we are seeing a diminution in the
Government’s commitment to science, research and technology, but
it is not an impossible task.
‘Aside from research, the higher education sector was hoping for
more details on the Government’s response to the Augar review,
which reported two-and-a-half years ago. We still don’t know
what, if anything, will happen to student loans or student
numbers or tuition fees. This is surprising because, given major
changes can take a couple of years to introduce, we will soon
approach the point where it is not feasible to roll out really
big new changes smoothly before the next election.’
