If you are reading this in an English higher education provider or research performing organisation, there’s been news about next year’s funding allocation.

There has been a narrative out there that a new government would use existing funding channels to support universities through difficult financial times. If anyone was in any doubt, these releases temper such hopes. This is not an “investment” budget for higher education, and while it does not represent significant cuts the overall envelope has shrunk in real terms, with many targeted allocations seeing substantial reductions.

On research, the Research England funding budgets for 2024-25 have been confirmed – largely with little difference in cash terms from last year. Inflation is still falling, but sticking with the headline figures for last year (as some allocations do) does mean a real term cut for spending overall.

We’ve also seen specific guidance on funding issued to Research England by the Department of Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT). One interesting tweak is that the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) is now to be aimed specifically at kickstarting economic growth, and there are steers to limit bureaucracy (while maintaining accountability) within REF2029.

Research England is told to work with OfS and across UKRI on financial sustainability, with a particular focus on sustaining disciplinary breath in areas of strategic importance in the UK.

Over at OfS, we’ve seen confirmation on capital and recurrent funding for 2024-25. Total recurrent funding (which is available to Approved (Fee Cap) providers and the various centralised services) has fallen by £13m compared to 2023-24. This won’t be news to some as it was largely flagged in the April 2024 grant letter from DFE.

Notably, there is a £15m decrease in allocations for student access and success – within this, there are increases for the full-time, part-time (a cut in headline cash terms, due to declining numbers), and disabled student premiums, and the student transitions premium and mental health premium are being maintained in real terms. Some £10m of cuts are on the way for UniConnect, and the additional mental health allocation made in Spring 2024 is confirmed as a one off. The other chunk of the headline decrease is simply because there are less (OfS fundable) students in the system than last year.

The funding council has also made £15m of savings by excluding subjects in price groups C1.1 and C1.2 from the postgraduate taught supplement and the targeted allocation for intensive postgraduate provision. There has also been a six million pound drop in funding for overseas study programmes. On the flip-side, the allocation for degree apprenticeships is now £24m (up from £16m last year).

Here’s how it looks for your provider:

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On capital the final £11m annual instalment (this is the residual formula allocation, the majority of this last three years of capital was allocated based on the outcomes of bids) has been confirmed.