Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to reduce the reliance of universities on funding from the public purse.

Higher education institutions are autonomous and independent from government, and as such they generate income from a variety of sources, alongside public support.

In the 2014-15 academic year, the sector had a total income of £33bn, of which £16bn came from tuition fees and education contracts, £8bn from UK Government grants for both teaching and research, and £9bn from other sources, including commercial income.

Universities now earn the majority of their income for teaching from fees. Detailed information about the exact nature and sources of higher education institution income across the Higher Education Funding Council for England-funded sector is publicly available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency website.