NHS funding cuts loom

Uncertain National Health Service funding for universities is "one of the greatest risks currently facing the higher education sector", funding chiefs have warned. According to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the NHS funding crisis will see twelve universities lose at least 0.5 per cent of their total income in 2007/8, in a sector that operates with very small margins. One institution faces a loss of more than 3 per cent. The reductions are mainly due to reduced numbers of pre-registration nurses and midwives in contracts with strategic health authorities. Of 28 institutions contacted by Hefce, only one expected an increase in NHS income in 2007/8, four expected no change, 18 predicted a reduction in income and two said they could not yet tell.