Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to identify higher education courses that teach skills where there is currently a shortage; and what steps her Department is taking to reduce the risk of these courses being cancelled.

The Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) continues to provide targeted funding in areas of strategic importance, helping to align higher education (HE) investment with skills needs set out in the Industrial Strategy.

For the 2026/27 academic year, we have asked the Office for Students (OfS) to prioritise funding which supports the highest cost strategically important subjects. Over two-thirds of the £1,252 million SPG recurrent (programme) budget for the 2026/27 academic year has been allocated to providers to support the provision of high-cost subjects.

We are also working together with the OfS to review and reform the SPG to ensure that high-cost subject funding is more effectively targeted towards subjects that support future skills needs and the Industrial Strategy. This includes the priority subjects set out in the ‘Pathways to Priority Occupations’ policy paper and underpinned within the Skills Needs analysis published by Skills England.

HE providers are autonomous bodies and are therefore responsible for decisions about the courses they offer.