Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Business performanceEducation - further and higherGraduatesRecruitment & retentionSkills shortages

CBI head Richard Lambert urges business to help fund university courses and teaching

by Kat Baker 8 Feb 2010
by Kat Baker 8 Feb 2010

CBI boss Richard Lambert has urged private sector firms to pump cash into the higher education system to help soften the blow of funding cuts, Personnel Today has learned.

Last week the Higher Education Funding Council revealed that university budgets would be slashed by £950m over the next three years – including a £215m reduction in teaching budgets.

Skills experts at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills conference in London today warned that these cuts would affect the quality of teaching and skills provided, and called on employers to limit the damage by helping to fund universities and colleges offering skills.

Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI, told Personnel Today that it was “depressing” that higher education was the first sector to suffer in spending cuts.

He said: “There will be constraints on teaching funding so that’s a concern. Inevitably the private sector will have to find ways of putting funding into university systems over the next few years. This could be done in a number of ways, like providing more bursaries and sponsoring courses and foundation degrees. There will be more company funding.”

He added: “Most business people recognise that they have a responsibility to do all they possibly can to support the [skills] system. The global skills challenge means we have all got to up our game considerably over the coming years and this is a shared agenda.”

Richard Brown, the former chief executive of the Council for Industry and Higher Education, said businesses could help to deliver training and provide skills directly through universities and colleges. He said: “Employers do a lot of work with the curriculum in terms of what’s needed, but they don’t roll up their sleeves and provide enough delivery of learning into colleges and universities.

“Most businesses develop their own staff, why don’t they deliver that directly as learning into colleges and universities. It’s in their long-term interests.”

The warning comes just hours after the University and College Union predicted 15,000 university jobs could be shed over the next few years as a result of the government’s budget cuts.

Other plans include using post-graduates rather than professors for teaching and postponing major building projects, according to the Guardian. Some institutions may be forced to ditch courses and close campuses.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The proposals have already provoked ballots for industrial action at many universities in the past week.

More than 200 job losses at King’s College, London, 700 at Leeds, 340 at Sheffield Hallam, and 300 at Hull, are expected.

CBI
Kat Baker

previous post
Autism in the workplace: quiz answers and online resources
next post
HR jobs market grows ‘substantially’ as hiring trend returns

You may also like

How neuroscience can unlock employee recognition

22 May 2025

UK universities fret over fall in international students

22 May 2025

Workers ‘wait and see’ as companies struggle to...

16 May 2025

Immigration white paper: 10 key points and reaction

12 May 2025

So what does the election of a new...

9 May 2025

Rumours during recruitment: how should HR respond?

9 May 2025

Teacher apprenticeship route to be tied to school...

9 May 2025

British Steel to resume recruitment

8 May 2025

North Sea oil giant to cut 250 jobs...

8 May 2025

Young people are less work-ready, say employers

7 May 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+