WALES

Funding council ‘forces through’ 20% cut in places

The University of Wales, Newport, has started “emergency discussions” after the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales confirmed that the number of students entering the institution would be cut by more than a fifth in 2013-14, writes David Matthews for Times Higher Education.

Swansea, Bangor and Aberystwyth universities will also lose a significant proportion of their places after the HEFCW rubber-stamped a controversial new method of allocating funding. In January the funding council announced that from 2013-14, 53% of Welsh student places in non-priority subjects would be removed from ‘general allocations’ to create a ‘margin’. Half of the margin would be reallocated to institutions charging less than £7,500 a year, while the rest would be distributed on the basis of Welsh government priorities: universities' research income, total income, overseas student cohort and number of spin-off companies.
Full report on the Times Higher Education site