‘Cut student numbers to protect best universities’

The Government should cut student places at second-rate universities to protect Britain's "world-class" research institutions, the head of University College London said today.

UCL's provost Malcolm Grant warned funding cuts could "decimate Britain's global competitiveness in research".

He urged the Government to consider reducing student numbers as the price for protecting research, even if that meant closing some colleges.

Professor Grant's comments come before a speech tomorrow by Business Secretary Vince Cable, in which he is expected to set out plans to slash university costs. Hundreds of thousands are expected to miss out on degree places this year amid record demand for higher education. The Government has cut the extra places available this year by half, to 10,000.

But Professor Grant urged ministers to prioritise Britain's world-leading research departments ahead of former polytechnics that operate on a "pile it high, sell it cheap" teaching model.

"The biggest risk to the big research universities is a cut in funding ... if that was done without proper identification of excellence then it would decimate Britain's global competitiveness," he told the Guardian.

There was a "direct human benefit" in areas such as cancer and Parkinson's disease from research-intensive universities, he added.

Universities must save £200 million this year, on top of savings of about £1 billion over the next few years.