Memorandum submitted by Professor David
Clarke (FC 37)
THE IMPACT
OF WITHDRAWAL
OF CAPITAL
FUNDING
The University of Bristol is one of the leading
research intensive universities in the United Kingdom and has
a strong reputation in a variety of disciplines, particularly
in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine, but also a range
of other STEM subjects.
The University has in place a 10 year capital
investment programme funded from three sources, namely University
surpluses on income over expenditure, from borrowings and from
capital grants. Capital grants have run at the rate of £15-18
million per annum and are a critical element of that programme.
We have already, in the last 15 years or so, been able to invest
significantly in Engineering, in Chemistry, in the first phase
of Physics refurbishment and elsewhere. But an absolutely critical
part of our programme is investment in Biological and Life Sciences
which is currently housed in a late 19th C/early 20th C building
which is unfit for purpose.
The credit crunch and the foreseeable consequences
for income over the last 18 months has already meant that we have
had to postpone indefinitely investment in a new building for
our Department of Mathematics which over the last ten years has
built a major international reputation. Retention of our international
scholars in Mathematics is critically endangered by this inability
to invest in new accommodation—they are currently situated
on nine sites across the campus.
Nevertheless, we decided that the single most
important critical investment for University of Bristol is £52
million for a major new building for Biological and Life Sciences.
The long term process of obtaining planning permission and finalising
the design details of a particularly complex building are complete
and we would be hoping to clear the site shortly with a view to
commencing the development later in 2010. However, the withdrawal
of half our capital funding now puts this project at risk. The
University has to decide between two difficult choices namely
the risk of committing money and later finding there are insufficient
funds for day-to-day maintenance and improvement of the estate,
and the equally unpalatable risk of not proceeding and being unable
to prosecute a central academic discipline in the future.
Professor David Clarke
Deputy Vice-Chancellor
University of Bristol
January 2010
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