Higher education funding cuts could hurt UK culture, warn museum bosses

University museums could face severe funding cuts in the near future as financial pressures mount on universities and government funding sources.

Museum directors in Scotland and England have warned of the potentially devastating effects on their institutions if potential funding reductions go ahead.

The distribution of resources for the running and maintaining of these museums is a combined effort between the parent universities and government funds being made available through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

Mungo Campbell, deputy director of The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, part of the University of Glasgow, said a possible cut in funds from government could, in turn, damage the museum's capability to raise funds from other sources.

The Deputy Director's comments come following a letter published in the Guardian last week, in which directors from some of England's most prominent museums expressed their fears over the effects of possible funding reductions.

Speaking to The Journal Mr Campbell said: “The future of earmarked funding streams has been under review for some time—both North and South of the Border. It is entirely a coincidence that their review has coincided with the economic down-turn.

"The deeply unfortunate consequence for parent universities with major collections may be the double difficulty of the withdrawal of earmarked 'core-funding' at the same time as general funds are reduced.

“As the writers of the Guardian letter observe, there could come a point when resources are so eroded that there is no longer any capacity to attract the charitable and other additional funds which are now so essential to our activities.”

The allocation of money for the Scottish university museums is currently under review by the SFC, the outcome of which is expected to be announced in the first quarter of 2010.

According to Dr Alan Knox, convenor of University Museums in Scotland (UMIS), the process should include more participation from the institutions most affected by the outcome.

Dr Knox told The Journal: “UMIS did meet with the funding council about a year ago long before the review started, and we had a discussion about some of the main issues before it passed back into the hands of the funding council and we have no idea what has happened since, so we are waiting with a certain amount of trepidation for the grant letter which will be published in March.”

The convenor of the representative body for all university museums in Scotland also echoed Mr Campbell's concerns on the potential effects of diminished financial resources.

“The amount of money that is coming in is not great in SFC terms, but it means a massive amount to us. The loss of these funds would have devastating effects on some of these collections.

“It's important to remember what these collections are for; they are increasingly used to provide enhanced teaching and it allows the universities to do things with their teaching that it doesn't allow other universities to do; it allows for public engagement using the collections to reach out to the communities in which they are situated.

“Most of the universities museums are funded on a shoe string and the loss of this money would be crippling.”

Mr Campbell and Dr Knox both said the university museums provide a crucial service in the presentation and preservation of Scottish culture.

“Universities with global reputations such as Glasgow increasingly acknowledge and celebrate the role played by their internationally significant collections and their cultural programmes,” Mr Campbell commented.

“In difficult times they will undoubtedly have to work very hard to maintain their museums as thriving places of learning and research, inside and beyond the campus. The potential removal of earmarked funding for major university museums would represent a serious blow to our national cultural infrastructure.”

City museums and galleries recently welcomed a £750,000 capital investment from the Scottish department of culture and external affairs.

Dr Knox said that although the funds are welcomed by UMIS, they are mainly aimed at the maintenance of buildings and collections and would not allow for staffing and teaching costs.