IT education funding squeeze threatens to derail UK recovery

The BCS warns that cuts in IT education funding will make it harder for UK organisations to find skilled technologists. Pic credit: Flickr: Nic’s Events

Despite the UK government’s pledge to prioritise the teaching of technology, universities fear that funding cuts will leave them poorly equipped to deal with the demands of a global market.

Earlier this month, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) announced that it would reduce university budgets by about £449m, a nationwide funding reduction of more than five per cent.

Regardless of these cuts, business secretary Lord Mandelson announced that an additional £35m would go towards the provision of science, technology, engineering and maths, but there are doubts over whether computing departments will actually benefit from the extra cash.

“[The additional funding] is certainly beneficial, but it isn’t enough. And it is not clear if, or how much of that money is going to be directed to computer science,” said the director at the British Computer Society’s (BCS’s) academy of computing, Bill Mitchell.

“We all know there will be cuts due to the credit crunch, but we have to realise that reductions in funding to computer science will result in both the students and UK plc being short changed,” he added.

Hefce could not say what the budget allocation would be. The body said it is supporting subjects that are “strategically important and vulnerable”, but computing is not one of them, despite a marked decrease in interest among students in that area.

“While we recognise the importance of this subject and that it is strategically important, it is not yet considered vulnerable but we will continue to monitor the area in the future,” a Hefce spokesman told Computing.

As well as strategic importance, another measure for considering a subject vulnerable is the number of student applications. Hefce said it is aware fewer people are studying computer science, but the decline is not alarming enough to meet the criteria.

Mandelson’s strategy sees IT as a key driver for economic recovery, but BCS figures suggest that the growth in the number of applications for computing degrees has decreased from 6.77 per cent in 2001 to 2.66 per cent in 2008.

And the number of students taking GCSE information and communication technology exams has fallen by a third in the past three years, from a total of 109,601 in 2006 to 73,519 in 2009, according to figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications.

Sector skills council e-Skills UK predicts demand growth for the IT and telecoms workforce of 15 per cent to 2016 – about 110,000 new entrants yearly, despite the recession.

BCS’s Mitchell maintains that the funding cuts will have a detrimental effect on the quality of education, but others believe that computer science courses no longer meet the needs of the UK economy.

“The [IT] education system is churning out the wrong sort of people for the markets of the future – most of them focus on jobs that are being outsourced or shifted to the cloud,” said David Chan, City University’s director of the centre for information leadership.

It is widely believed that funding cuts will put a strain on computer science departments, increasing the student/lecturer ratio. Many are rumoured to be downsizing and making academics redundant, as well as technicians.

The University of Westminster is going through a period of restructuring and consolidating its two schools of computer science in a process that should be completed by September.

Like most universities, Westminster is having to work around budget cuts, which is a “painful” process but has its advantages, said Sue Black, head of the department of information and software systems.

“Universities have to wake up to the fact that they need to run their finances as if they are a business and that is not negative, just a different way of working,” said Black.

“I do not think that the government cuts in education are a good thing, but having more market awareness will probably benefit academia,” she added.

However, Black warned that while it is important to furnish IT graduates with business experience to meet market expectations, people with comprehensive technical expertise will still be needed.

“Cutting costs may bring short-term benefits, but it also leaves universities [in a situation where] they are not properly equipped to deal with the advances in technology. If the UK is to hold its own in the global economy, we need to have students who will understand the fundamentals, as other countries will have that.”

According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, government-led initiatives to support computing careers have included an IT “demand-raising” project and the creation of a degree that will enable graduates to work in areas such as IT management, business strategy and planning, system design and IT consultancy.

“There are more than 86,000 students in English higher education institutions studying computer science, but this is not the only route into a career in the technology sector. There has been an increase in applications for science, technology, engineering and maths subjects and we made an additional 10,000 student places available in courses that will support the new industries and jobs of the future,” a BIS spokeswoman said.