High stakes in higher education: The true price of UK Formula Student endeavours
UK Formula Student teams shelled out £0.8 million in 2023. The Asterisk highlights the intersection of education, motorsport, and financial pressures.
UK university teams spent over £0.8 million at a student racing competition, an exclusive analysis by The Asterisk can reveal.
25 UK-based teams spent an estimated £853,771 in 2023 at Formula Student UK 2023’s ‘FS Class’ event where student-led teams design, build, and race formula-style cars, Freedom of Information (FoI) requests by The Asterisk show.
15 teams refused to provide data or did not respond to FoI requests.
Total expenditure by all 40 UK teams that took part at the ‘FS Class’ event could be well over the one million mark.
“A million pounds sounds a lot to all of us as individuals, but it is actually a modest sum in relation to motorsports and engineering education,” said Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), an independent think tank dedicated to higher education.
“Universities have multiple sources of income, and so I suspect it would be wrong to assume that every penny is coming from students’ loans.
“Of course, a History or English student may not want their tuition fees to be spent on this, but there’s no evidence that is what is happening,” he said.
Earlier in May, The Guardian reported that a growing number of universities in England risk closure due to funding constraints unless they cut costs or merge.
“At a time when universities are balancing their books very carefully, they will, of course, be considering all expenditure,” said Rose Stephenson, Director of Policy at HEPI. “This highlights the crux of the financial sustainability question for UK universities; if we want the UK higher education sector to be world-leading, with real-life, hands-on experience of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects and teamwork, then we must be willing to invest in this.
“If we want to continue to reduce investment in the higher education sector, then we need to consider carefully which of these activities would no longer be available to students,” she said.
Avoiding cost cuts that affect learning
Johnny Rich, Chief Executive of the Engineering Professors' Council (EPC), said the UK’s teaching approach to engineering that combines the practical with the theoretical is one of the many reasons why the country’s engineering departments are considered “among the very best in the world”.
“UK universities are facing enormous financial pressures at the moment, and it is certainly true that the costs of running an engineering degree are far higher than the funding received for each student through UK tuition fees,” said Rich.
“Some competitions are a significant financial investment, but you’d be hard-pressed to find many academics or their universities that would argue that we should cut corners on costs at the expense of our students’ education or at the risk of producing less good engineers.
“Formula Student is a well-established competition that supports learning in a variety of areas, particularly in automotive engineering, producing better-designed and more efficient vehicles,” he added.
‘An educational event rather than a motorsport competition’
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), the organisers of Formula Student, said that the programme is primarily an educational event rather than a motorsport competition.
“Formula Student is one of a number of competitions we run for university students to give them experience of ‘real world’ engineering as part of their degree,” IMechE told The Asterisk.
Professor John Senior, former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences at the University of Hertfordshire (UH), said the practical elements are very important in engineering.
“Formula Student provides a perfect final year project for quite a large group of students,” said the Professor of Communication Networks, who previously oversaw Formula Student activities at UH.
“It’s certainly a worthwhile activity,” he said. “I don’t think the costs are excessive when a group of 20 to 30 participate in the Formula Student team, design, build, and test activities.
“It’s what’s needed in engineering education if we expect these students to become competent professionals and chartered engineers in the future,” he said.
Students participating in Formula Student have gone on to work for teams in Formula One.
“We have had ex-students in every one of the Formula One teams,” revealed Professor Senior.
Industry support for university teams
Securing sponsorships can help ease university funding and provide students with industry knowledge.
“Students are encouraged to gain industrial sponsorship (cash or in kind) to support their teams, their build, running costs, and travel and transport for the event itself,” said Professor Georgina Harris, Deputy President of EPC.
“Practical student projects offer a range of advantages for students over those that are merely theoretical, including the opportunity to work with external partners and work to externally set specifications,” she said.
“Finding funding for engineering student projects can be very challenging, but there are benefits of engaging with externally organised and run competitions such as Formula Student, the Greenpower Challenge, Engineers Without Borders, etc.
“These projects have a large network of volunteers and sponsors who set up and run the events—something that would be well beyond the funding capability of any individual university,” she said.
Teams can also partner with manufacturers or suppliers that produce budget-friendly parts.
“As these competitions are national programmes, there are also suppliers who produce cost-effective components and parts to support student teams,” said Harris.