UK: Higher education funding quangos under scrutiny

A review of all higher education funding agencies was formally announced last week by Lord Mandelson, the UK's First Secretary, reports Melanie Newman for Times Higher Education.

In a speech at the London School of Economics, Lord Mandelson said the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is responsible for universities, would "play its part" in public-sector reform.

He announced "a comprehensive review of the role played by national-level institutions such as the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Skills Funding Agency, the research councils and the Technology Strategy Board, and their relationship to central Government. The review will aim to cut "overlapping bureaucracy and duplicated programmes".

In July, Liam Byrne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, asked Whitehall departments to review their quangos with a view to their possible merger or abolition.
Full report on the Times Higher Education site