University museums highlight impact of Scottish Funding Council cut

An organisation representing Scottish university museums has drawn attention to the fallout from a 26% cut in their funding from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

University Museums in Scotland (Umis) has existed since the 1980s and represents all of the Accredited university museum services in Scotland.

Its nine members hold over two million objects, with collections in five organisations recognised as being of national significance under the Scottish Government’s Recognition Scheme.

Until recently, all Umis partners were supported through the Museums, Galleries and Collections grant from the SFC, helping the museums, and collections held within universities, develop their contribution to teaching, research, outreach and museum practice.

However, this year the SFC introduced a real-terms cut to the grant of 26%. Five Umis members face a 20% reduction in the grants they receive in 2024/25, while the four Umis members without Recognised collections have had all grant support withdrawn.

A new Umis document scrutinising the cuts says: “Using the Recognition Scheme as a criteria for funding is regarded by many in the sector, including the Scottish Government’s Recognition Committee, to be inappropriate, particularly given that the scheme has been closed to new applicants.

"As a result, those university museums that have lost funding will be unable to achieve the one criterion that would reopen their access to this funding.”

The cuts in funding from the SFC put Scottish university museums in a considerably worse position than the rest of the UK, particularly in light of the recent announcement by Research England of a 20% uplift in its Higher Education Museums, Galleries, and Collections fund (HEMG).

The Umis document also states: “The grant cut, which was introduced without consultation or impact assessment, is coupled with a challenging Higher Education funding environment (taking into account the £100m reduction in funding to the SFC overall) and will, it is anticipated, lead to a reduction in resource, programming, overall budgets, and not least staffing within university museums.”

Sharon Heal, the director of the Museums Association, said: “The funding cuts are a blow to university museums in Scotland and will undermine public access to world-class collections.

"It is inappropriate to use the Recognition Scheme as a criteria for funding, especially considering that the scheme has been closed to new applicants so museums that have lost funding won’t be able to join the scheme that might reopen their access to this funding.

"Alongside other sector bodies, we have called on the SFC to reconsider the decision to remove funding and to use Recognition as criteria for funding.”

Changes for England's university museums

In April, it was announced that Research England was increasing the amount of money it gives to the sector through the HEMG fund. This is aimed at English university museums, galleries and collections and is designed to help them meet the costs of serving the wider research community beyond their own institutions.

Following a review in 2023, HEMG funding was increased from £11.7m to £14m a year with 40 higher education museums, galleries and collections across 21 higher education providers receiving support.

This is an increase from previous rounds of the scheme, which only had 19 higher education museums and galleries recipients across 31 museums, galleries and collections.

“The increase was reflection of the fact that this funding has essentially remained flat for decades,” says Xa Sturgis, co-chair of the University Museums Group and director of the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

“There was a recognition that our costs have gone up and we clearly want to celebrate the increase.”

However some organisations have lost their funding completely, including the Crafts Study Centre at the University of the Creative Arts, and the Leeds University Art Collection at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery.

Others suffered significant cuts, including the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, at the University College London (down from £202,284 to £139,275,) and the Courtauld Institute of Art (down from £1,055,156 to £686,373).