Recommendation 40

The Government’s reforms to the Strategic Priorities Grant should consider whether to reintroduce the Strategically Important and Vulnerable Subjects programme that existed in the 1990s and 2000s and as proposed by the Royal Astronomical Society and Universities UK. Funding through the grant could cover both high-cost subjects (which the Government has said it wants to prioritise) and strategically important subjects not currently eligible for teaching grants (e.g. modern languages). The diversity of the higher education sector should be reflected by targeting such grants at areas or types of institution where cold-spots are at risk of developing, to ensure the provision of high-cost and strategically important subjects across the country and at institutions with varying entry standards. (Recommendation, Paragraph 202) 116 International Students: Impact of the Government’s reforms