Press Release: Matched funding re-announcement shows Government out of ideas
Commenting today on the Government’s re-announcement of a £200m matched funding scheme for universities.
Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary David Willetts said:
“As the Government runs out of ideas for improving higher education they are instead just re-announcing policies they’ve told us about before.
“We strongly support incentives to encourage people to give money to universities and backed the matched funding scheme when it was first announced but on its own it doesn’t rise to the challenge of funding higher education for the future. That requires a much more fundamental review, which we have already called for.”
Notes to Editors
Matched funding re-announcement
• 2004 The Government’s Voluntary Giving Task Force (set up in 2003) looked at matched funding (see the Thomas Report) and reported in 2004. In December, Ministers announced details of a pilot scheme to provide matched-funding for private donations to Higher Education. They made available ‘pump-priming’ matched funding of £7.5 million for a trial period over three years to help English institutions build their capacity to raise income from donations. (DfES Press Release, December 2004, http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2004_0225 )
• Feb 2007 Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell announced a £200 million matched funding scheme for encouraging charitable giving to universities. The press release stated: ‘The scheme is intended to stimulate additional private cash donations to the sector of over £400 million - meaning £600 million in total could be generated for Higher Education.’ (DfES Press Release, February 2007, http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2007_0026 )
• June 2007 Another press release from the DfES on the same topic, this time openly admitting that this was a repetition of the original release: ‘Minister for Higher Education Bill Rammell launched the £200 million matched funding scheme for Higher Education Consultation today. In February, the Prime Minister and Mr Rammell launched the scheme…” (DfES Press Release, June 2007, http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2007_0117 ) However, the promised £600 million total benefit was absent from this version.
• 2008 Today, John Denham told The Times that he will announce a £200 million pound matched funding scheme. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3670846.ece)