The Secretary of State for Education has written to the Office for Students (OfS) to set out details of the teaching grant budget for the financial year 2020-21.
The OfS has published the letter in full.
The grant available totals £1,479 million which represents a reduction in funding of 0.5 per cent since 2019-20 in cash terms.
As part of this year's funding there are some areas where additional provision is needed – primarily to reflect increases in intakes to pre-registration medical degrees and the continuing effects of the transfer of funding responsibility for pre-registration courses in nursing, midwifery and allied health professions. This means the underlying cut in recurrent funding is greater – at around £70 million (5 per cent) in cash terms, although this should be viewed alongside an increase in capital funding of £50 million.
Approximately £26 million of the reduction in recurrent funding is attributable to the four-month period, from April to July 2020, that falls within the 2019-20 academic year. The OfS has already allocated the large majority of our funding for academic year 2019-20 and wishes to avoid as far as possible having to reduce grants already announced. Instead, we believe we can secure the savings required in academic year 2019-20 from as yet unallocated funds and by deferring some activities into academic year 2020-21.
The OfS will issue a consultation next week to seek views on how we should implement the necessary savings in recurrent funding having regard to the priorities set out by the Secretary of State. This comes ahead of a full review of the funding method from the 2021-22 financial year which we intend to consult on from April 2020.