Arts and specialist institutions have been the hit hard after the Office for Students (OfS) announced how cuts to university teaching grants will affect individual allocations.
The regulator has confirmed that nursing, computing, geography and archaeology courses are set to lose £41.6 million, while creative and performing arts subjects will lose £12.9 million in support.
Earlier this month, Bridget Phillipson, who was then education secretary, instructed the regulator to remove support for several “high-cost” subjects after she cut the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) budget for the second year in a row.
The OfS has been given a budget of £1.25 billion for 2026-27, after £50.9 million was taken out of the grant by ministers.
Phillipson, who has since been replaced in post by Lucy Powell, said that in light of the government’s “fiscal inheritance”, she had had to set the budget at a “level consistent with the resources available” and was, therefore, choosing to focus money for the SPG on “those areas of highest national importance”.
