University museums to keep charitable status

University museums and galleries with charitable status will continue to qualify for the benefits it confers, following a review by the Charity Commission, according to Resource, the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries.

The Charity Commission had broadened its emphasis to judge whether a collection deserved charitable status to include its educational as well as aesthetic merit. It said that collections that were freely available for academics or students to access for research would be eligible, but that those held in trusts would not.

Universities have charity-exempt status and so are not regulated by the Charity Commission. But many universities have collections whose funding does not inherit this status and hence have to apply to the commission.