The Museum, Galleries and Collections Fund supports museums and galleries in the higher education sector where the cost of stewardship goes beyond what universities could be expected to meet from mainstream funding for teaching and research. It supports collections that have research significance beyond their home institutions. The fund was previously managed for HEFCE by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). HEFCE has recently completed a review of its funding for university museums and galleries, led by Sir Muir Russell. Higher education institutions wishing to be considered for funding were invited to make written submissions. The review considered how far the activities of the museums and galleries met core HEFCE policy aims and are activities of a kind that HEFCE funding should support. Three main criteria were developed to support this consideration:
* provision of a service to the wider research community at significant cost beyond what is needed to meet the needs of an institution’s own researchers
* provision of a high-quality teaching and learning experience to the wider HE community
* addressing HEFCE’s widening participation objective to promote and provide the opportunity of successful higher education to everyone who can benefit from it.
UMG was closely involved in the consultation process and following this, HEFCE has made allocations to university museums and galleries, which can be seen here:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/initiats/museum/allocat.htm
In introducing the allocations, HEFCE Chief Executive, Sir Alan Langlands, said: ‘Universities and colleges play an important role in the cultural heritage of the country, holding some of the finest and most important collections of artefacts in the country. By funding such a diverse andsignificant range of museums and galleries we recognise their important role in education and research and our responsibility to ensure that those collections are accessible to the public.’
