Despite warnings from The Russell Group that any funding cut would close down universities, the government has today announced the reality of the situation: a £449million cut to the funding of England's Universities. The cuts follow real-term cuts to Imperial College's funding last year.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is cutting teaching budgets by 1.6% in real terms - with total funding falling by £215million. Research funding has been frozen, however Imperial College's research funding had already been cut by a third last year.

Another £142million has been cut from the universities' buildings budget. This could prove to be catastrophic for Imperial's South-East Quadrant project, which is rumoured to already be in jeopardy.

The only reprise for Imperial could be that funding allocation will favour Science and Technology subjects, of which Imperial is almost entirely comprised.

NUS President, Wes Streeting, said that the cuts were "national self-harm". He insisted that "cuts being imposed by the government are going to hit teaching, research and the number of places available".

Meanwhile, Universities UK's Steve Smith told the BBC: "Last year about 160,000 students who applied didn't end up going to university. This year, we already know that there are about another 75,000 applying for university".

Universities' Minister David Lammy accused the press and univesities of "scaremongering", but said that "we [the government] are now confident that Hefce can achieve these in a way that minimises the impact on teaching and students as we asked for in our recent grant letter."

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