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Education sec orders universities to cut funding for journalism courses

Universities have been told to deprioritise journalism courses after ministers revealed a £108m cut in funding for higher education.

Journalism courses currently benefit from a stream of funding known as the Strategic Projects Grant distributed by the Department for Education.

But education secretary Bridget Phillipson, left, has ordered universities to redirect money away from journalism and related courses to other ‘high cost’ subjects.

These include engineering, IT, pre-registration nursing, agriculture, forestry, and food science.

The shock move has spawned a campaign spearheaded by the National Council for the Training of Journalists to ‘save quality journalism education.’

Industry leaders have branded the move “irrational and misguided” at a time when trusted news is needed more than ever.

In a letter to the Office for Students, Ms Phillipson wrote: “This government’s 2024 Industrial Strategy sets out the sectors that offer the highest growth opportunity for the economy and business.

“I am therefore setting out in the terms and conditions that your funding allocations should support provision of courses in these sectors, noting that a significant proportion of them currently attract SPG funding.

“Prioritising in this way does, however, involve making compromises elsewhere; for this reason, I am asking you to reprioritise high cost subject funding away from media studies, journalism, publishing and information services courses.

“While I recognise that these courses are valued by the universities that deliver them and the students that take them, my decision is informed by the challenging fiscal context we have inherited.”

The scale of the cuts in terms of the impact on individual journalism courses is unclear, but the SPG funding stream was worth £17m to journalism and related courses

The total reduction in the £1,347m SPG budget amounts to £108m.

The SPG cash is not the only source of funding for journalism courses, but it will reduce the resources universities can draw upon to support journalism programmes, at a time when many are already under financial strain.

Over the past year HTFP has reported the closure of the journalism course at the University of South Wales and the axeing of the long-running courses at City of Portsmouth College’s Highbury campus.

NCTJ chief executive Joanne Forbes said: “The targeted withdrawal of funding suggests the government’s value and support for journalism is diminishing at a time when trusted, well-trained journalists are more essential than ever.

“Rather than narrowing the path into journalism, we should be widening it. These cuts risk reducing the accessibility, quality and diversity of journalism education, and threaten the future health of journalism in the UK.”

New Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith added: “Bridget Phillipson’s instruction to move high-cost subject funding away from journalism and media courses is completely contrary to the government’s stated policy of creating and supporting an environment in which local and national journalism can thrive.

“At a time when we need trusted news and information more than ever, this misguided and irrational move risks undermining the pipeline of talent into the industry and restricting access to journalism as a career choice.

“The Education Secretary has got this one wrong and needs to think again.”

The campaign is also backed by the Association for Journalism Education (AJE UK), the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC), the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA), and the Professional Publishers Association (PPA).