The chairman of the University Museums Group (UMG) has voiced concerns about the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (Hefce) review of core funding arrangements for university museums, which is scheduled to begin in the summer.
Nick Merriman said that he had been told by Hefce that details would be finalised at the end of March, but had yet to hear anything. "We are in the dark, and the silence and delay are worrying. We are assuming there will be an independent chair with terms of reference and a timetable, but at the moment, we only know a review is planned."
A Hefce spokesman confirmed that the review would be taking place this summer, but that the terms of reference and participants had not yet been established. Asked what was behind the delay, he said: "There are no problems. We have a new chief executive who started in April, and we felt it was better for him to have the opportunity to agree the terms and the people working on it."
The review will follow the handover of responsibility for the funding of university museums from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to Hefce next month. The AHRC administered £9.9m of ring fenced funding from 2006-09. Hefce has guaranteed funding at the same level for one more year, with further funding dependent on the outcome of the review.
The move is worrying many university museum directors, with some expressing fears that the fund, which makes up more than half of core funding for most university museums, is not as significant for Hefce as it was for the AHRC.
One director indicated they would have preferred the fund to have remained with the AHRC, saying: "The funding pot is not a lot in terms of Hefce's overall budgets, but we are told that it is vulnerable. To step back from core funding for university museums seems bizarre."
Merriman is particularly concerned that money ringfenced for museums under the AHRC will disappear into Hefce's block grant for universities. In the meantime, he shares the sentiments of another director, who said: "We are all waiting with bated breath."
Nick Merriman said that he had been told by Hefce that details would be finalised at the end of March, but had yet to hear anything. "We are in the dark, and the silence and delay are worrying. We are assuming there will be an independent chair with terms of reference and a timetable, but at the moment, we only know a review is planned."
A Hefce spokesman confirmed that the review would be taking place this summer, but that the terms of reference and participants had not yet been established. Asked what was behind the delay, he said: "There are no problems. We have a new chief executive who started in April, and we felt it was better for him to have the opportunity to agree the terms and the people working on it."
The review will follow the handover of responsibility for the funding of university museums from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to Hefce next month. The AHRC administered £9.9m of ring fenced funding from 2006-09. Hefce has guaranteed funding at the same level for one more year, with further funding dependent on the outcome of the review.
The move is worrying many university museum directors, with some expressing fears that the fund, which makes up more than half of core funding for most university museums, is not as significant for Hefce as it was for the AHRC.
One director indicated they would have preferred the fund to have remained with the AHRC, saying: "The funding pot is not a lot in terms of Hefce's overall budgets, but we are told that it is vulnerable. To step back from core funding for university museums seems bizarre."
Merriman is particularly concerned that money ringfenced for museums under the AHRC will disappear into Hefce's block grant for universities. In the meantime, he shares the sentiments of another director, who said: "We are all waiting with bated breath."
