Sir, We wish to raise our concerns about the core funding of the university museums in England, which include the Ashmolean Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Manchester Museum, the Barber Institute, Birmingham, the Sainsbury Centre, UEA and the Courtauld Institute Galleries, London. They are among the greatest in the country, holding 30 per cent of all the designated collections of national and international importance.
Core funding of university museums has been provided by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) but is currently under review by a committee, chaired by Sir Muir Russell, which is due to report in the spring and intends to set the level of funding for the next five years. These museums contribute enormously to the cultural life of this country as well as to the teaching, research and public engagement programmes of their own and other universities. They rely on public funding as the basis for raising money from private sources.
In the case of the recent redevelopment of the Ashmolean Museum, for example, significant gifts were received from donors on the understanding that the museum’s core funding was secure. We trust that the review will take full account of the great public and economic value of these museums and of the critical role played by their core funding from Hefce.
Lord Butler Of Brockwell
Lord Hannay Of Chiswick
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Lord Howarth Of Newport
Lord Krebs
Baroness O’Neill Of Bengarve
Professor Lord Renfrew Of Kaimsthorn
Lord Sainsbury Of Preston Candover
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Lord Selborne
Lord Smith Of Finsbury
Lord Sutherland Of Houndwood