Officialese decoded

The chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England describes the present practice of "the calculation of the amount of research money for each subject" as based on "historical spending patterns". This is officialese for the choices made by those undertaking the research.

His policy is to replace this by "future spending requirements" which will be made by HEFCE decisions on what are the "areas of need and subjects in which the UK has particular strength". That is officialese for take-over of university research by the state.

John Griffith

Emeritus professor of public law, University of London