Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction of 50 per cent to the high-cost subject funding for other courses in price group C1 on the number of (a) courses available, (b) UK students undertaking those courses and (c) international students undertaking those courses.

The Strategic Priorities Grant, formerly referred to as the Teaching Grant, plays an important role in supporting providers and students to develop the skills and knowledge needed locally, regionally, and nationally to support the economy.

We have asked the Office for Students (OfS) to reform the grant for 2021-22 to ensure that more of taxpayers’ money is spent on supporting higher education provision which aligns with national priorities. This includes the reprioritisation of funding towards the provision of high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy, high-cost science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, and subjects meeting specific labour market needs.

This government also values the arts. High quality provision in a range of subjects is critical for our workforce and our public services and is culturally enriching for our society, and that is why we have invested in our world class specialist providers through the Strategic Priorities Grant. This includes asking the OfS for a £10 million increase to the specialist provider allocation, to support these institutions which are particularly reliant on Strategic Priorities Grant funding. We want to ensure that our small and specialist providers, including some of our top music and arts providers, receive additional support, and that grant funding is used to effectively support students.

The OfS will consult on these changes shortly, before final allocations for 2021-22 are confirmed, and will carefully consider the impact of any changes on providers.