News archive 2010

College statement regarding HEFCE grant

18 Mar 2010, PR 55/10

The College has been allocated a provisional recurrent grant of £135,240,793 by the funding body HEFCE for 2010/11. This  represents a £0.7 million or 0.5% cut to King’s recurrent funding in cash terms, equivalent to a 2.5% cut once inflation is taken into account. This year’s grant includes £750,000 for one year only to moderate the effects of the current cuts. Once this is removed, and other special factors are taken into account, the reduction in grant approaches £4 million from the comparable 2009/10 baseline.



Professor Rick Trainor, Principal of King’s, commented,

'The reduction in our grant is disappointing but to be expected in these difficult times. Overall, HEFCE’s recurrent allocations to universities for 2010/11 represent an understandable reaction to previously announced reductions in HE funding. Heads of Institutions have been arguing that drastic short term reductions would seriously undermine the sector and our arguments appear to have been influential. However, the recurrent allocations for 2010-11 announced today by HEFCE are provisional and will need to be confirmed in the summer – after the election – and there is no guarantee that they will stand.

Furthermore, we have not yet received details of our capital grant, and there is a concern that those allocations could be considerably reduced. In any event, although it is to be hoped that severe reductions in public expenditure in Higher Education will be avoided, no-one should be in any doubt that longer term reductions in university funding are inevitable given the effects on the UK of the 2008 banking crisis and subsequent recession; indeed cuts already announced in December for 2011-12 and 2012-13 are still to come.

As a result, significant cutbacks including job losses (which we very much hope will be achieved through voluntary arrangements as far as possible) will be necessary at King's and across the sector in order to sustain financial wellbeing. Now that King’s has the news of its provisional recurrent grant for 2010/11, we must ensure that the best possible decisions are made to secure the long-term academic and financial success of the College.'



Notes to editors

King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2009) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,000 students (of whom more than 8,600 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 5,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.



Further information
Public Relations Department
Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 3202

Next:
King’s business plan competition launched
Honorary Fellow wins Nobel Literature Prize
King's contributes to WHO Intervention Guidelines
Nightingale app previewed
Free radicals shown to protect the heart

Previous:
US Ambassador delivers Commemoration Oration
Antidepressants benefit physically ill patients
Report criticises ‘adversarial policing’ of young people
Improve rape victim care
What happens if there's a hung Parliament?


This information is provided by the Public Relations Department
Tel: 020-7848 3202  Fax: 020-7848 3739  Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk