Michael Bassey is right in saying that the government has confused "big expensive research" with "a lot of small and inexpensive research that can and should continue across the sector" and that the consequences of this failure could be catastrophic. But higher education also bears some of the blame for being prepared to go along with this confusion, for failing to argue or accept the case for a separate stream of scholarship funding to support teaching and research, and for so often asserting, without demonstrating, the link between research, scholarship and teaching. Sadly, it may now be too late for any rational allocation of funding for research or scholarship.
Roger Brown
Principal, Southampton Institute