British universities set to struggle

According to the Guardian's list of the world's best universities, UK institutions are trailing behind those in the US in terms of offering a world class education.

The list, which was released last week, gives the UK 18 universities in the top 100, 4 of these placed in the top ten. The remaining 6 belong to the United States and they have a further 25 academic institutions in other positions throughout the top 100. However, after seven years, Cambridge has overtaken Harvard to steal the top spot.

It is not only Harvard that has slipped down the list. Edinburgh fell two places after holding the number 20 for the past two years, while Oxford fell down a position to 6th and the University of Manchester dipped four places to 30th.

On hearing these results, Dr Wendy Piatt, the director general of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, which includes Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Manchester, warned that these slightly disappointing results were not a surprise.

Dr Piatt said: “Our world-class status is under threat from other countries who are ploughing billions into their top institutions in a determined bid to overtake the UK in the rankings.

“While our competitors are investing in their future skills and knowledge base, UK universities are threatened with further cuts which will make it more difficult than ever to maintain their world-class status.”

The UK may hold the honour of being home to arguably the best university in the world but comparatively the US beats Britain in the constant battle to offer the greatest variety of world class education.

A possible reason for this was revealed in a report published last week by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It was announced that the UK spends 0.7 percent of its GDP on higher education, which falls below the OECD average of 1 percent and far behind the US, who spend 3.1 percent, the highest amount in the world.

With public spending cuts forecast by the coalition government, an increase in funding is simply not an option. Before the general election it was announced that the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) could be forced to cut their allowance by 3.2 percent for at least 3 years starting from 2011/12.

This academic year the SFC is providing £1.12 billion for Scotland’s higher education institutions which is a cut of 0.6 percent in real terms.

The funding allocations for this year and those immediately preceding it do not take into account the rising number of students choosing to study in Scotland. This year 20,651 students were accepted into Scottish universities ahead of clearing. This figure is up 3.5 percent from the previous year.

As the cuts were announced in advance, the University of Edinburgh actually cut their student intake by a thousand reducing the student population from 26,545 last year to 25,636 this September.

EUSA president Liz Rawlings told The Journal: "It's disappointing that the Scottish Funding Council are cutting higher education funding this year. Education is vital in creating jobs and stimulating growth. In a recession, we shouldn't be cutting education but investing in the future.

"Scotland's education system is already woefully underfunded compared to other industrialised nations. If we want a world-leading university then it must be funded effectively. Until then, students will be paying more for less."

The Russell Group aside, the newer universities in Scotland are having to make major cuts to secure they survive this period of recovery. It was recently reported that Edinburgh Napier University are in a 120-day consultation period and are looking to save £4.8 million of its £64.5 million staffing budget in the coming academic year. This means redundancies shall follow, some of which may not be voluntary.

Queen Margaret University (QMU) are attempting to make £2.5 million worth of savings by July 2011. They have already accepted 23 voluntary redundancies and identified 10 further jobs they were dispensing with. These were entirely necessary to ensure the financial stability of QMU.

The University of Glasgow, who moved up two places to number 77 but did not manage to better their 2008 position of 73, are not making any redundancies. They are, however, undergoing money-saving measures, such as staff spending reviews, to avoid financial difficulty. 

The Guardian compiles the list using the QS criteria. This includes academic reputation, citations, staff-student ratio, employability, and how international the make-up of the faculty and student body is.

The Times Higher Education (THE) publication is due to release its own list this week. It does not use the QS rankings and it is widely expected that British universities will do even worse in the THE rankings.