University museums fear funding cuts
University museums fear review will lead to substantial cuts
University museums and galleries are becoming increasingly concerned that a review into the way they are funded will lead to substantial cuts.
The review is being carried out by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), which has taken over responsibility for funding university museums from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The review will set the level of core funding for university museums for the next five years and comes against a background of wider government cuts to universities.
University Museums Group (UMG) representatives will meet Hefce on Tuesday 2 February for a briefing on the review, although funding levels will not be revealed. University museums will have to wait until mid-April to find out how much they will receive.
Nick Merriman, the director of the Manchester Museum, will be at the meeting with Hefce. He says flat funding is the best that can be expected.
“It is terribly sad as, with the stable core funding combined with money from Renaissance and organisations like the Heritage Lottery Fund, the whole landscape of university museums has changed over the past few years,” says Merriman.
The UMG and its supporters have been working hard to spread awareness of their plight, with letters published this month in The Guardian and The Times newspapers.
They have been arguing that the stability that core funding provides has helped attract donors to projects such as the £61m redevelopment of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, which reopened in November last year. They have also said that funding cuts would damage the ability of the public to access university collections.
Many working in university museums are also unhappy with the three main criteria that Hefce is using for the review, which relate to its aims for research, teaching and widening participation in higher education.
This marks a move away from the AHRC’s focus on increasing public access and the stewardship of public collections.
One university museum director, who preferred not to be named, said: “There is a sense that what was meant to be a forward-looking review is looking backwards to a more traditional museum. It looks like a retrogressive step.”
Image: Art from the Islamic World gallery, Ashmolean Museum, © Richard Bryant/arcaid.co.uk
Story update 02.02.2010
University museums escape cuts
The review is being carried out by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), which has taken over responsibility for funding university museums from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The review will set the level of core funding for university museums for the next five years and comes against a background of wider government cuts to universities.
University Museums Group (UMG) representatives will meet Hefce on Tuesday 2 February for a briefing on the review, although funding levels will not be revealed. University museums will have to wait until mid-April to find out how much they will receive.
Nick Merriman, the director of the Manchester Museum, will be at the meeting with Hefce. He says flat funding is the best that can be expected.
“It is terribly sad as, with the stable core funding combined with money from Renaissance and organisations like the Heritage Lottery Fund, the whole landscape of university museums has changed over the past few years,” says Merriman.
The UMG and its supporters have been working hard to spread awareness of their plight, with letters published this month in The Guardian and The Times newspapers.
They have been arguing that the stability that core funding provides has helped attract donors to projects such as the £61m redevelopment of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, which reopened in November last year. They have also said that funding cuts would damage the ability of the public to access university collections.
Many working in university museums are also unhappy with the three main criteria that Hefce is using for the review, which relate to its aims for research, teaching and widening participation in higher education.
This marks a move away from the AHRC’s focus on increasing public access and the stewardship of public collections.
One university museum director, who preferred not to be named, said: “There is a sense that what was meant to be a forward-looking review is looking backwards to a more traditional museum. It looks like a retrogressive step.”
Image: Art from the Islamic World gallery, Ashmolean Museum, © Richard Bryant/arcaid.co.uk
Story update 02.02.2010
University museums escape cuts