UK: Universities' outside work pulls in £3 billion

While the rest of the economy was withering in the teeth of the recession, British universities increased their outside revenues from business partners and selling services to the public sector to a record £3 billion (US$4.4 billion), writes Robert Lea for The Sunday Times.

With the future funding of higher education and undergraduate tuition fees in the spotlight, figures from the Department for Business and the country's higher education funding councils show that British universities increased external income by 5.5% in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Nicola Dandridge, of the lobbying group Universities UK, called the revenues "astonishing statistics" that prove that universities are "a success story in the British economy.
Full report on The Sunday Times site