Good news on science. No news on teaching
PhD stipends will almost double to around £13,000 and the salaries of postdoctoral students will rise by an average £4,000 by 2006 in the healthiest science budget settlement for years. Chancellor Gordon Brown also promised to implement the Roberts review on research, raising science spending by 10 per cent annually to reach an extra £1.25 billion a year by the end of this spending review period.
But the Department for Education and Skills said today that universities will have to wait until the publication of a higher education white paper in the autumn to find out how much money they have over the 2003 to 2006 spending review period for general teaching and to fund the planned expansion in student numbers.
Universities UK said that the failure to announce the higher education settlement was disappointing. It said that, while the boost for science was welcome, details on general higher education funding were needed urgently.