Government should listen to President Obama on university funding plans

The union said that as the university sector waits for the delivery of the annual grant letter, which details how much funding will be available for university teaching budgets, the government needed to ensure the UK was not left behind.
 
In his State of the Union address, President Obama said that university must not become a luxury and it was 'an economic imperative' that every family in America could afford higher education.
 
He also called for interest rates on student loans to come down and greater investment in research, warning that if the US did not sustain investment then other countries would 'win the race for the future.'
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'President Obama's state of the union address is a timely reminder to politicians in this country of the importance of higher education and the role it needs to play in our recovery and our future.
 
'Worryingly, the things President Obama warns against - higher fees, loan repayments going up and cuts to research funding - have formed the plank of the government's higher education policy. If we want to enter, let alone win, the race for the future we could do worse than listen to the good advice offered by the President of the United States last night.'