Britain’s higher-education minister has urged the country’s universities to make up for cuts in government support in part by applying for federal dollars from the United States, the Financial Times reported. David Lammy, the minister of state for higher education and intellectual property, told university leaders on Thursday that the American federal government’s “huge financial stimulus for U.S. research” presented “an opportunity” for British institutions, which have been reeling from sweeping budget cuts. “British universities can lament the fact that we can’t afford a cash injection on that scale. Or they can, as I’ve repeatedly urged, try to get a piece of the action,” Mr. Lammy said. According to the Financial Times, university leaders expressed skepticism at Mr. Lammy’s contention that American money offered a promising source of income for cash-strapped British institutions.
RSS
Follow The Ticker through your favorite RSS reader.
4 Responses to British Universities Are Urged to Pursue U.S. Stimulus Money, for ‘a Piece of the Action’
greenhills73 - March 11, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Is anybody besides me just totally dumbfounded by the very idea?
music_librarian - March 12, 2010 at 9:13 am
My employer can’t afford to give me a raise. I’m thinking of asking the Chinese government for some cash.
jaysanderson - March 12, 2010 at 12:48 pm
The British government knows the truth: things in the U.S. are now so completely screwed-up that anyone is likely to get stimulus money…especially those who don’t need it or even live here.
12116399 - March 12, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Hey greenhills73 I would be totally dumbfounded as well but I have had too much experience dealing with various British government departments including education. While I have huge respect for Mr Lammy personally, he is merely following the government M.O. which is to recognize what they need to do and then ask someone else to pay for it. In the rest of that FT article the Prime Minister says that education may become Britain’s biggest export industry. If that is a policy statement, the government needs to invest in universities or encourage a more stable financial base as British professors, particularly scientists well know.