Will Teaching Take the Brunt of the Cuts?

There's speculation in the Financial Times that teaching will have to shoulder the lion's share of the cuts in higher education, with research being shielded from the worst.
'Government officials are considering a proposal to cut the £4.7bn teaching budget for universities to only £1.2bn as part of its austerity drive. This would allow the department for business to shelter the £6bn research budget, which would be cut by £962m,' states the article.
Not sure if Steve Smith, VC at Exeter and quoted in the article, is the source of the 'proposal', but we'll wait to see if this division of the pain is the one that materialises later in the year.