Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they treat universities that receive public funding as private or public institutions.

In general, universities that receive public grant funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England are private institutions.

However there are instances where the law does consider them to be public authorities. For example, they are listed in Schedule 1 to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as public authorities for the purposes of that Act. However, for the purposes of the Human Rights Act 1998, they are considered to be ‘hybrid’ public authorities, which means that that Act only applies to their public functions, and not their private ones.