As many of you will be aware, the long-awaited Government review of post-18 education and funding in England (known as the ‘Augar review’) was published yesterday. The report makes a number of recommendations and it will be up to the UK government, in the forthcoming Spending Review, to decide how to respond to these.

Please be assured that our leadership team will look at the review and any subsequent Government announcements in great depth over the coming days.

However, I wanted to write to you now, reaffirming our commitment to the highest quality of both teaching and research.

I am proud of the University of Bath’s reputation for producing some of the most employable graduates in the country. This track record has been recognised in many ways, for example by employers who are keen to host our talented students on placement, and by our ranking as 5th in the UK for graduate prospects by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019. The UK benefits greatly from the contributions made by our students following their graduation.

Our students benefit from an outstanding rounded education which includes both excellent learning opportunities and extracurricular facilities, such as our Sports Training Village and arts centre. It is clear however that there are real concerns about the level of repayments that students face and the impact this might have in later years.

The Augar report is to be commended for studying this matter in such great detail and for recognising the complexities involved. We welcome the fact the report addresses concerns about living costs with maintenance grants targeted to help those students most in need. Here at Bath, we also provide substantial bursary support through schemes such as our Gold Scholarship Programme which provides those students with £5,000 for each year of study.

However, we are concerned the report is proposing to freeze per student resource for three years. The report’s emphasis on maintaining overall funding levels if fee reductions are introduced must be heeded. We believe maintaining funding levels is essential for us to maintain the quality of the special education we provide at Bath and indeed for the UK to be internationally competitive in the future. Reductions in funding would also damage our important access and widening participation activities which form a key area in which we wish to achieve our shared goals. Top up funding from government needs to value success if the standing of the UK University system internationally is to be maintained, and to ensure our valued international student community is not disadvantaged.

I am pleased that Universities UK (UUK) is making representations to the Government on this matter. We are engaging with UUK and we regard it as of the greatest importance that the Government acts to ensure that funding levels are retained.

If you would like to read more, the Wonkhe analysis is a useful digest. I’ve no doubt this will also be a topic of conversation in some of the informal meetings I’m having with colleagues over the coming weeks. I am also hoping, later in the year, to host a series of engagement events with our community, where we will seek to consider shorter and longer term opportunities and challenges which will undoubtedly also provide a forum for discussion.

My thanks for all you are doing to contribute to the ongoing, shared success of our community.

With warm good wishes,

Professor Ian White
Vice-Chancellor and President