9 September 2010 Last updated at 08:42 ET

Universities too focused on research, says Willetts

Scientists have strongly opposed cuts to research

Science Minister David Willetts has said the research-teaching balance has "gone wrong" in universities, after defending cuts to science research.

Addressing vice chancellors, he said he was shocked by how little teaching was valued in lecturers' promotions.

Universities that relegated the importance of teaching risked "losing sight" of their mission, he said.

Earlier, he defended plans unveiled on Wednesday to "raise the bar" on science research funded by the taxpayer.

On Thursday, during a speech on the future of higher education, Mr Willetts said: "It remains hard to shift the impression that what really counts in higher education is research. This needs to change."

He told the Universities UK annual conference he had found a report "shocking" that suggested only one in 10 senior promotions in top universities was influenced by teaching.

Mr Willetts said the focus in research was due to the incentives created by successive governments' policies.

"We have strengthened the incentives for everyone to carry out research with no change in the regime for teaching," he said.

Science cuts row

His comments come a day after Business Secretary Vince Cable said research funding should "screen out mediocrity" in the projects backed by the taxpayer.

Universities and scientists reacted angrily to his assertion that only research that was commercially useful or academically outstanding should be funded.

Analysis

Tom Feilden, BBC Science Correspondent

It's actually quite hard to calculate the financial return on individual research grants - how do you decide what proportion of the global market in, say, mobile phones is down to a specific study on transistors at UCL in 1973?

Having said that, a recent report on the value of medical research compiled by the MRC, the Wellcome Trust, and the Academy of Medical Sciences, concluded that every pound spent on public or charitably funded research yielded a return of 30p per year - in perpetuity - from direct or indirect gains to GDP.

According to the Higher Education Funding Council the number of patents granted to UK universities between 2000 and 2008 rose by 136%, and consultancy income over the same period rose by 222%.

University bioscience departments have spawned over 200 spin-out companies over the past decade, and in 2007 alone these spin-outs employed nearly 14,000 people and had a combined turnover of £1.1 bn.

There does seem to be a compelling argument that investment in scientific research can generate wealth and boost economic activity.

In defence of the policy, Mr Willetts told the BBC's Today programme public spending was "running way ahead of what we can afford" and taxpayers should only fund the highest quality research.

Universities are expecting budget cuts in the Comprehensive Spending Review scheduled for October.

But scientific and academic leaders say funding less research would threaten the UK's status as a world leader in science.

Former chief executive of the British Medical Research Council Professor Colin Blakemore questioned how research quality would be defined.

"Some of it doesn't produce the results that were expected. That is the nature of research. Sometimes it doesn't work," he told the BBC.

Mr Willetts said one way the government could focus spending would be to concentrate on research that scored the highest ratings in assessments by the UK funding councils.

Prof Blakemore said scientific research was crucial to the future of the UK's economy.

"Britain is a small country with declining resources - where do we survive from? Our only hope is innovation and to produce innovation we have to produce the basis of innovation, in research."

The government spends £4.3bn a year on scientific research.

Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society, said on Wednesday that cutting science funding would be a false economy.

"The question should not be can we afford the investment - it should be can we afford the cuts."