Teaching formula flak

THE HIGHER Education Funding Council's proposed new funding method for teaching will mean cuts and departmental closures, academics are complaining.

Geographers and psychologists have led a chorus of criticism, saying that the reclassification of their disciplines in the "classroom-based" lowest funding price group in HEFCE's Funding Method for Teaching from 1998/99 is a nonsense.

HEFCE has re-organised disciplines into four new "price groups" with classroom-based disciplines receiving the lowest income, through part-laboratory and laboratory-based disciplines to the high-income clinical disciplines.

The new classification for geography and psychology ignores laboratory and field-based study crucial to both, it is argued, and will lead to "serious funding and quality shortfalls".

The Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers is compiling a formal complaint to HEFCE and the Scientific Affairs Board of the British Psychological Society is also preparing a statement.

A "flurry of emails" is said to be rallying psychology heads for a group response.

Rita Gardner, director of the Royal Geographical Society, said: "Certain areas of geography could suffer substantially. We feel that the re-classification does not sufficiently recognise the important attributes of geography in terms of field work, laboratory-based and computer-based teaching.

"We are compiling data from geography departments to put a case to HEFCE in January."

Dr Gardner would not quantify the potential damage, but Ron Johnston of Bristol University's geography department estimated that the changes could mean funding cuts of more than 25 per cent in his department.

"It would destroy our ability to do what we do," he said. Geographers' fears were focused on the future of resource-dependent physical and environmental fields.

In psychology the situation is similar. Peter Banister, treasurer of the Association of Heads of Psychology Departments, said: "I am not sure how we are going to survive. What we are spending per student is way above what HEFCE wants to give us. It shows a total disregard for our discipline."

A HEFCE spokesman said the funding proposals were not set in stone. "The price groups are based on information that the institutions have provided. We will consider the views of institutions, subject associations and others."