MeCCSA and BAFTSS joint letter to DfE on Strategic Priorities Grant funding 2026-27
MeCCSA and BAFTSS have written a joint letter to the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP, to urge the Government to reconsider their position on the Strategic Priorities Grant funding for 2026-27 that was announced on 6th June.
We already knew the SPG would be reduced by £100m (£1.25bn total, down from £1.35bn), though this the Secretary of State’s letter to the OfS sets out the strategic steer for how to make those savings.
It again directly targets subject areas in our field:
Maintaining this focus will necessarily require trade-offs elsewhere; for this reason, I am asking you to no longer deliver funding to providers through the following areas of the SPG:
– Price Group C1.1 (nursing, computing and history courses)
– Price Group C1.2 (creative arts, performing arts, archaeology and geography courses)
– NHS clinical consultants’ pay
– NHS senior academic general practitioners’ pay
– NHS pension scheme
Meanwhile “funding for subjects including medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, chemistry and engineering is protected, recognising their critical contribution to skills needs and their materially higher delivery costs”.
This follows the Government’s decision last year “to reprioritise high-cost subject funding away from media studies, journalism, publishing and information services courses”, which MeCCSA protested against at the time. We also called for sector engagement and meaningful consultation on a future funding model for strategic priorities grants, which has not been forthcoming.
We are not alone in protesting against these latest cuts, with other sector bodies and learned societies also mobilising. The University Alliance CEO, Vanessa Wilson, meanwhile called it a “short-sighted and irresponsible decision that flies in the face of the government’s own industrial strategy”, noting that cuts to creative subjects alongside nursing and computing “represents an act of cultural and economic vandalism that risks undermining the talent pipeline on which our public services, economy and future prosperity depend”.
You can read the joint MeCCSA and BAFTSS letter here: https://www.meccsa.org.uk/app/uploads/2026/07/MeCCSA-BAFTSS-Letter-to-Bridget-Phillipson-June-2026.pdf
The OfS announcement on SPG guidance for 2026-27: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-and-events/press-and-media/the-office-for-students-receives-funding-guidance-for-2026-27/
The DfE letter outlining priorities for the SPG grant: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/r5sf44kq/spg-ofs-guidance-programme_and-_heif-fy2026_27_signed.pdf
WonkHE write up: https://wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/ofs-funding-cuts-for-nursing-computing-history-and-the-creative-arts/
THE write up: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/nursing-and-computing-courses-hit-teaching-grant-cuts-confirmed
MeCCSA interventions on the last year’s SPG funding cuts: https://www.meccsa.org.uk/news/meccsa-intervention-on-ofs-strategic-priorities-grant-funding-2025-26/
MeCCSA campaign to protect journalism education from strategic priorities cuts: https://www.meccsa.org.uk/news/meccsa-joins-campaign-to-protect-journalism-education-from-strategic-priorities-cuts/