‘Morning After The Night Before’ For Uni

Staff and students have lashed out at Gordon Brown’s proposed £2.5 BILLION cut in higher education spending.

The reaction came after the Russell Group, which represents Cambridge and other top unis, said cuts would cause "meltdown”.

Wendy Piatt, the group's director, and Michael Arthur, its chair and the vice-chancellor of Leeds University, said in a joint statement: "It has taken more than 800 years to create one of the world's greatest education systems, and it looks like it will take just six months to bring it to its knees.

"If government targets these huge cuts on university budgets, they will have a devastating effect not only on students and staff, but also on our international competitiveness, national economy and ability to recover from recession.

"Cuts of this magnitude in overall funding will impact on the sustainability of our research and cannot fail to affect even the most outstanding universities."

A Cambridge spokesman said they were: “very concerned about the potential impact of the Government’s proposed funding cuts”.

And angry student politicians have blamed a Labour Government for the problem.

Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA) Registrar Callum Wood called the current system a “quangoburaucracy” governed by red tape.

“Labour's blasé attitude to tax-and-spend over the past decade has racked up a huge public debt (the vast majority of which is nothing to do with the recession) and so it shouldn't come as a surprise that cuts will have to be made”, he said.

“This is the morning after the night before.”

“For Cambridge to continue to be a major protagonist on the international stage, it is imperative that politicians are committed to supporting world-class research institutions.”

Despite an endowment of over £4 BILLION, this is not the first time Cambridge has faced financial pressure.

As reported in the The Tab last week, authorities are considering issuing £300 MILLION of bonds in order to fund extensive building work.