The funding environment for universities Universities are essential for the UK’s modern knowledge economy. The UK has a university sector that many other countries aspire to emulate. Our academics are world leaders in research and innovation, our graduates are in demand worldwide, and our universities attract business and investment to all regions of the UK.
However, in the absence of sufficient and sustained investment, the UK’s research base and university sector will fall behind key competitors. As the 2015 spending review approaches, there remain a number of major financial challenges that must be overcome. The UK has invested significantly less in research as a proportion of GDP than many other countries.1The UK’s total research and development (R&D) expenditure was 1.72% of GDP in 2012 and has been around 1.8% of GDP since the early 1990s. In comparison, in 2012 the EU-28 provisional estimate was 2.06% of GDP and the OECD average was 2.4%. Public funding for research offers high returns and has been shown to encourage greater investment in R&D from the private sector. UK research is exceptionally strong and efficient, and delivers great economic and social benefits. But it will not be possible to sustain this positive trajectory in the long term unless investment in UK
research is increased.
http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Documents/2015/WhyInvestInUniversities.pdf
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