A cut in general grant means a cut in some combination of services, personnel and investment.
City officials said the authority had to find £82m in savings by 2015 due to a cut in grants from central government.
Universities were penalised for teaching what students wanted, with a cut in arts grants per capita and an increase in science ones.
DARD is facing cuts along with most other Stormont departments, apart from health, following a cut in the grant Northern Ireland gets from Westminster.
At the University of Texas, officials are figuring out ways to keep research fellows and graduate student assistants at work despite a cut in federal grants that helps cover the cost of 2,000 jobs.
On average, according to Hefce, universities will experience a cut in their "recurrent grant" (largely teaching and research) of about 4% (cash terms).
The new powers would be combined with a cut in the block grant, currently about £32bn, which Scotland gets from the UK government.
EU rules mean the NI Executive would have to make up the shortfall through a cut in the block grant it receives from Westminster.
Although its workers granted deep cuts in other areas, Northwest Airlines froze but did not end employee pension plans while under bankruptcy protection, for example.
Sarah Babbage writes in TAPPED that Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress seem poised to grant an additional $20 billion in spending cuts for FY 2011, in addition to the $10 billion in cuts they've already pledged for this fiscal year.
The Communication Workers of America, which represents customer service agents, said yesterday that while it would participate in discussions to devise a new business plan, it did not intend to grant further cuts in wages and benefits.
