Professor Sir Adam Roberts says university cuts will damage culture and economy

Professor Sir Adam Roberts, head of the British Academy, spoke at the House of Commons, presenting his report that highlighted the disastrous affects of 1 billion budget cuts facing universities over the next three years.

His report claims that arts courses have attracted far more foreign students to Britain than science. Nearly 71,000 students from EU countries and more than 151,000 foreign students from further afield studied arts, humanities or social science courses in Britain last year, an increase of 53% and 78% respectively since 2002. His analysis was covered in a recent article by Nicola Woolcock in The Times, entitled University cuts damage culture and economy, which quotes Roberts saying, Teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences has economic value in a wide variety of ways.

Adam Roberts is Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for International Studies