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Elite research universities are getting the lion's share of cash from the Higher Education Funding Council for England's ?1.7 billion "special pot", figures released this week show.

The special pot comprises expenditure not covered by formula-based funding for teaching and research.

The universities of Cambridge and Oxford top the table, sharing ?68 million or 8.8 per cent of the funds. Then come Birmingham, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol, Southampton, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ College London, Imperial College London, Manchester, King's College London and Leeds.

The highest-ranking non-Russell Group institution in the table is London Metropolitan 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ. Its ?14.7 million special-pot grant includes ?5.2 million in inherited liabilities as well as ?2 million each from the capital, information technology and strategic sector funds.

Formula-based funding provides ?4.6 billion to English institutions and, again, the research elite gets a large chunk.

Universities and other organisations bid for special cash for strategic funds. The largest of these is the research infrastructure fund - worth ?0 million this year - followed by strategic-sector initiatives such as the collaborative and restructuring fund.

In terms of strategic-sector funding, four institutions received more than ?5 million each through the collaboration and restructuring, e-51¹ú²úÊÓƵ and medical capital funds. They were the universities of Keele, Sussex, Nottingham and Exeter.

But some institutions were ordered to repay money, including Middlesex 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, which was overpaid ?900,000 through the strategic-sector fund. Cambridge was ordered to repay almost ?20,000 through the value-for-money scheme.

The data also list grants made from Hefce to research councils, Universities UK and the Higher Education Policy Institute.

The Arts and Humanities Research Board received ?59 million from the national facilities fund. The research infrastructure fund paid the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council ?4.7 million, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council ?4.5 million and the Natural Environment Research Council ?1.6 million.

UUK received ?780,000 and Hepi got ?94,000.

Who got what

Cambridge ?38.5m Oxford ?29.5m Birmingham ?.5m Newcastle ?22.7m Nottingham ?21.9m Bristol ?20.1m Southampton ?19.5m 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ College London ?19.2m Imperial College London ?19.0m Manchester ?18.0m King's College London ?17.6m Leeds ?16.5m