Arts students shouldn't subsidise university science

By Gervas Huxley. Are tuition fees paid by arts students being used to fund university science? If so it shows a striking lack of accountability, says Gervas Huxley.
In my last blog, I explained that arts and humanities are the only subjects to have benefited from the fee changes introduced by the coalition government, as they have seen an increase in funding per student. But many readers were quick to point out that the connection between the revenue that tuition fees attract and expenditure on tuition is tenuous to say the least. This is true. There is no guarantee that increased revenues from fees, especially for students studying arts, humanities and social sciences, will be spent on their own education. University finances permit multiple kinds of cross-subsidy: both between research and teaching, and between different disciplines. Precisely how the surplus generated by fees is spent will in practice depend on the outcome of a complex process of bargaining between competing parties. Read more...