The last Budget was not kind to many people, least of all the Higher Education sector. This does not include the failure of the government to provide supplementation for academic salary increases which will have a very significant effect on university operating budgets as well as on the desirability of an academic career given the relative decline in academic salaries. This of course has a major impact on the ability of universities to provide employment for postgraduate students. Universities have always been a traditional source of employment and over the next few years, we will certainly see their ability to employ young people severely curtailed along with their ability to undertake research at all. This will hit the sciences much harder than the humanities.
Science costs money - to do and to teach.
Cash strapped university administrations will find it easier to make ends meet by cutting the science and engineering based courses first. Still, maybe they will not need as much for undergraduate science based courses once the higher HECS fees which now discriminate against science and engineering have discouraged students from selecting that career path. Young research scientists have also found that the reduced level of funding for universities, combined with the uncertainty that this creates, have led to reduced academic staff turnover and less jobs overall, a squeeze situation that means many positions which might once have been filled by young postgraduates are now simply not available. This provided a basis for innovation and the employment of graduates in applied research opportunities. However, the last Budget was not kind to this group either.