Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the economic impact on York of reductions in funding for archaeology courses.

In January 2021 we asked the Office for Students (OfS) to reform the Strategic Priorities Grant. In considering consultation responses and the issues that were highlighted the Secretary of State for Education concluded that archaeology should be included within the OfS’s Price Group C1.1 subject list. Therefore, government funding for archaeology from the Strategic Priorities Grant has not been reduced. In academic year 2020/21, archaeology was in the OfS’ Price Group C1 for high-cost subject funding and received £243 per full-time equivalent student. In academic year 2021/22 archaeology was included in the OfS’ Price Group C1.1 subject list and received an increased high-cost subject funding rate of £252.50 per full-time equivalent student, as set out here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/recurrent-funding-for-2021-22-outcomes-of-consultation/.