.-.
---.J-
r
-
King's College London (KQC) newsletter
COURT CUTS WILL HURT The College' Block Recurrent Grant for 1986/87 has been announced at £25,593M, a 0.3% increase on the UGC funded ba eline in 1985/86. The net percentage cash increa e i however expres ed a a mea urement of the ca h increa e to the College from a re-ba ed 1985/ 6 level. When compared with actual e i ting grant re ource, the College Recurrent Grant for 19 6/ 87 represents an approximate 1.6% decrea e in ca h term in re pect of non Medical activity and an approximate 4.1 % increa e in re pect of the Medical School. The cut in recurrent resource mean that the College i facing an e timated deficit in 19 6/ 7 of ome £1.7M with all the consequential co t cutting exercises that uch a ignificant deficit implie . In the distribution of the block grant the University followed similar principles to those adopted by the UGC; weightings for each subject group have been applied uniformly across the University and the UGC's institutional research judgements have been taken into consideration. The allocation takes account of the planning student numbers for 1989/90 as ou tlined in the May UGC letter (see Appendix A). The Court also adopted the 'safety-net used by the UGC to ensure that no School suffers a net reduction of more than -0.5%. The overall allocation has been decided by a complicated formula involving elements of teaching research Contract Research, Direct Research, Staff Research and Judgemental Research) and special factors recognised both by the Court and the UGC. Full details of these are contained in the Court letter to Schools which was released on July 9. The Court have set aside certain monies from the overall UGC grant. Provision for Academic Initiatives has been set at £500,000; £50,00 has been put aside for contributions to recurrent costs associated with intercollegiate projects; restructuring money of £500,000 has been provided in addition to the existing Mergers Fund and £449,00 has been allocated to the Management Information Services Division to implement the phased migration strategy in administrative computing. Two areas have fallen by the wayside in that the URICA proposal for an integrated library computer system has been reserved and the Court have ended the practice of making supplementary maintenance grants in respect of accommodation brought into use for the fust time. Other points raised in the Court letter refer to the particular difficulty faced by Birkbeck and by Extra Mural Studies. The need to observe the UGC stance on provision for clinical medicine and for continuing education is noted as is the UGC recommendation that the Central Uni versity reduces progressively to half its current level by 1990. Civil Engineering at King's is highlighted in a statement that the Court and Senate have endorsed the Muir Wood Report for a merger between the King's and Queen Mary Departments. Concern is expressed at the 'large and increasing financial deficits' projected by some Schools and the Court will be asking Schools what steps they propose to take to eliminate such deficits within a three year period. To date, no recognition of surpluses or deficits has been made in determining recurrent grants. The Court regards the money available to them - £235M - as totally inadequate for the University and is unable to offer any cushioning in terms of additional funds. The general picture is not encouraging, not for the university system as a whole, not for the University of London, and certainly not for King's College. The College Finance and General Purposes Committee will meet on July 24 to decide on what action will need to be taken and only then can a clearer - if not brighter - picture emerge of what the 0.3% new increase really means in terms of surviving the next session. The tables below show the student numbers on which allocation was made (Appendix A) and the distribution of the total recurrent grant over the University as a whole (Appendix B) and are taken directly from the Court letter. The full text of the Court letter is available for reference at each of the main library sites and in the Information Office on the Strand campus.