Submission to the Spending Review 2025

The government has set out its vision for a decade of national renewal, but the current tough fiscal situation means the government faces difficult choices.

As such, government will rightly want to secure the best return on every pound of public investment. The Russell Group’s submission to the 2025 Comprehensive Spending Review sets out ways that the UK can maximise the strengths of its world-leading research-intensive universities. This will be critical to the ambitions of driving growth, improving public services and raising living standards.

The Russell Group is calling on government to:

Boost UK R&D-intensity to become a G7 leader and support innovation-led growth. Steadily increasing public R&D investment over the SR period means the UK could reach the top three G7 nations for R&D intensity. A boost to R&D could address the real-terms decline in quality-related (QR) research funding, build capacity to commercialise more research by scaling up the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), and improve cost recovery on research grants.

This would enable universities to pursue innovative and high-risk, high-reward research, generate more high-value spinouts and intellectual property, and ensure the UK’s research base remains agile, responsive and sustainable.  

Secure a long-term funding landscape that supports universities to deliver a pipeline of skills. This pipeline of skills will create the workforce the UK needs to drive innovation, improve the UK’s public services, and generate economic growth. This should include tuition fee caps increasing with inflation and other measures to increase per student funding – for example, through the Strategic Priorities Grant). 

Harness research-intensive universities’ global prestige and partnerships to boost UK foreign direct investment (FDI) and exports. This requires a welcoming offer to international students and staff with stable, affordable and internationally competitive visa routes. It also means integrating universities’ contributions into the wider UK offer to international investors; working with the sector on a new global strategy for universities and research; and protecting UK breakthroughs by funding enhanced research security capacity. Taking these steps would help to expand new markets and drive growth in priority industrial sectors. 

Russell Group universities have also made a series of commitments through which they can support the government’s aims, if the right supportive and sustainable policy and funding landscape is in place. They will:

• Utilise research, innovation and skills as engines for growth, transforming UK towns and cities, creating clusters of high-value activity and boosting regional development. 
• Help break down the barriers to opportunity by addressing educational inequality and ensuring provision delivers best value for students and meets UK skills needs. 
• Act as key delivery partners for the Industrial Strategy, working with business of all sizes to support growth across priority industrial sectors. 
• Support efforts to build an NHS fit for the future, training the future workforce and providing a pipeline of innovations to deliver better outcomes for patients. 
• Champion UK prosperity whilst helping to safeguard national security, working with government and the security services to protect research from hostile actors, secure UK advantage in key technology areas and boost exports. 

Reflecting on the submission, Dr Tim Bradshaw, Chief Executive of the Russell Group, said:

“The Spending Review is a pivotal moment in shaping the government’s approach to their core missions over the next few years. We are confident that our universities can play a major role as engines of growth and opportunity, but it’s also a delicate time for the sector as we face significant financial challenges.

“Our universities are committed to making efficiencies across their operations, and remain bold and ambitious in what they can offer – from filling vital skills gaps across the regions of the UK, to delivering breakthrough research that spawns successful new businesses. However, the financial pressures are increasingly severe. To enable us to unlock our full potential, we need stable policy and ambitious, targeted investment so we can help to make every part of the UK better off.”