Review of multimillion-pound university museum fund ends “uncertainty”
IWM’s director Diane Lees will chair the review of Hefce's fund
A long-awaited review of a fund of more than £10m that supports university museums has alleviated fears that it will be discontinued.
Chaired by Diane Lees, the director of the Imperial War Museums (IWM), the primary aim of the review is to establish whether the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (Hefce) Museums, Galleries and Collections Fund is fit for purpose and set future funding levels from 2017-18 and beyond.
The fund has not been reviewed since 2008-9, raising concerns that it would not be protected in a changing higher education sector.
“Uncertainty was building because a proposal had arisen that Hefce should be broken up. There was great uncertainty within the university museums community,” said Paul Smith, the director of Oxford University Museum of Natural History and co-chair of the University Museums Group (UMG).
Smith added that the fund provided a “stable source of income” in an “unstable world”, allowing university museums to leverage other forms of income from trusts, foundations, research councils and commercial enterprises.
The fund’s modest pot, said Smith, allows the 31 museums currently in receipt of it to leverage a total of £42.5m.
Money from the fund makes up 12% of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History’s annual budget and also serves the purpose of indicating to universities that their museums are “worthy of support” added Smith.
The UMG wants the fund’s three existing aims to remain. These are that it supports museums to: conduct research in universities and other higher education institutions; support teaching; and increase public engagement.
When asked about the potential impact Brexit could have on the funding of university museums, Smith said: “Although universities are very dependent on European funding and my own institution [Oxford University] gets about 20% of its research income from the EU but that’s not true of university museums. We don’t tend to be particularly reliant on EU income.”
He acknowledged that European research grants often have a “public engagement component” but said the money that university museums can get from such streams is not significant when compared with funding from the Museums, Galleries and Collections Fund.
The review’s final terms of reference will be revealed at a meeting on 30 June at IWM London. It is calling for submissions from all university museums, whether or not they have been supported by the fund.
Chaired by Diane Lees, the director of the Imperial War Museums (IWM), the primary aim of the review is to establish whether the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (Hefce) Museums, Galleries and Collections Fund is fit for purpose and set future funding levels from 2017-18 and beyond.
The fund has not been reviewed since 2008-9, raising concerns that it would not be protected in a changing higher education sector.
“Uncertainty was building because a proposal had arisen that Hefce should be broken up. There was great uncertainty within the university museums community,” said Paul Smith, the director of Oxford University Museum of Natural History and co-chair of the University Museums Group (UMG).
Smith added that the fund provided a “stable source of income” in an “unstable world”, allowing university museums to leverage other forms of income from trusts, foundations, research councils and commercial enterprises.
The fund’s modest pot, said Smith, allows the 31 museums currently in receipt of it to leverage a total of £42.5m.
Money from the fund makes up 12% of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History’s annual budget and also serves the purpose of indicating to universities that their museums are “worthy of support” added Smith.
The UMG wants the fund’s three existing aims to remain. These are that it supports museums to: conduct research in universities and other higher education institutions; support teaching; and increase public engagement.
When asked about the potential impact Brexit could have on the funding of university museums, Smith said: “Although universities are very dependent on European funding and my own institution [Oxford University] gets about 20% of its research income from the EU but that’s not true of university museums. We don’t tend to be particularly reliant on EU income.”
He acknowledged that European research grants often have a “public engagement component” but said the money that university museums can get from such streams is not significant when compared with funding from the Museums, Galleries and Collections Fund.
The review’s final terms of reference will be revealed at a meeting on 30 June at IWM London. It is calling for submissions from all university museums, whether or not they have been supported by the fund.