Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the potential reductions to university mathematics departments including Birkbeck University on the UK’s status in science and technology.

Higher education (HE) providers are independent, autonomous institutions responsible for their own decisions on staffing issues, including how they structure themselves to deliver research and teaching priorities. Where it is necessary to reshape their activities, it is important that universities carefully consider the impact of job losses on staff and students and the overall sustainability of teaching and research.

The department will continue to work closely with the Office for Students (OfS) and various parties including a variety of HE providers across the sector, mission groups and other government departments to understand the ongoing impacts and changing landscape of financial sustainability in the HE sector. The OfS collects financial data from HE providers, and analyse this to ensure they have an up to date understanding of the sustainability of the sector. Where the OfS identifies concerns about the financial viability of an HE provider, they will implement enhanced monitoring of that provider.

The government is committed to securing the UK’s status as a science and technology superpower, and in doing so, levelling up across the country. To achieve this, the department is investing in programmes that aim to achieve this at all levels of education, such as the Prime Minister’s recently announced mission to ensure all pupils study some form of maths up to the age of 18. Additionally, the department is investing in science, technology, engineering and maths in higher education, with an additional £750 million over the next three years to support high quality teaching and facilities including in science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in over a decade. Several government strategies are also in place to support the science and technology superpower ambition and levelling up aims, including the UK Innovation Strategy (2021), the National AI Strategy (2021), and the UK Digital Strategy (2022). These strategies set out how we will strengthen our reserves of talent and skills in order to drive success.