COLLEGES and universities must plan for further cuts after teaching budgets were slashed yesterday.

Nottingham Trent University will receive £67.8m – a cut of 0.7% from last year.

The University of Nottingham was also left disappointed after receiving less than expected from the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Its grant for 2010-11 is £130.7m – an increase of 2.4%.

But Professor David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, is preparing for further cuts in the sector.

"Further cuts to higher education budgets for the following two years, amounting to at least £600m, have yet to be set out in detail and will obviously impact on us in due course," he said.

Prof Greenaway said a "savings task force" would continue, having found "significant savings over the last nine months".

Staffing levels have been tightly controlled and spending has been restricted across the university's schools.

The total budget for universities and colleges which provide degree-level courses has been cut by £573m.

There are worries that record numbers of university applications will be rejected because of universities scaling back.

Nottingham Trent University has had a £90m makeover of its Newton and Arkwright buildings in the city and course applications continue to rise.

A spokeswoman from Nottingham Trent University said: "This slight reduction in grant is within the parameters we established when planning for the coming academic year.

"We believe that the university is in very good shape moving forward."

Money for colleges which provide higher education courses was also confirmed yesterday. Stephenson College, in Lenton, which specialises in apprenticeships, will receive more than £1.1m after a £16.9% increase in funding.

Robert Kelly, Vice Principal, said: "We have assisted the Government to achieve its intention to provide higher education opportunities for non-traditional entrants."

Castle College Nottingham has had a 7.4% cut in funding for degree level courses – receiving £646,000. West Notts College's higher education funding was cut by 5.9% and New College Nottingham's grant was cut by 3.7%. Both colleges will receive approximately £2.3m.

Andrew Martin, deputy principal at West Notts College, said: "The reduction equates to £145,000, which will impact on some support areas of the curriculum in a minor way, while the teaching grant has actually increased."

North Notts College will receive £134,000 after a 1% increase and South Nottingham College will receive £431,000 after a 0.3% decrease.

michael.greenwell@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk