I think that the reason why psychic matters are not funded by universities is that many academics do not take such matters seriously. But of course some individuals, including governments do invest in the services of such people. But it is not usually out in the open.
Of course, psychic matters are often seen in the extreme end of the far out and weird, classified alongside thinkers like David Icke.
It is good to be sceptical about psychic matters and I think that Carl Jung is about the best starting point, the closest we have to any genuine psychology of parapsychology . In particular, his autobiography, Memories, Dreams and Reflections talks about his own premonitions. The way he links this with the idea of the collective unconscious is also important because it takes away a direct belief in the supernatural.
On a similar level I would recommend Lyall Watson's Supernatural because it provides a basis for understanding such experiences as part of nature and also Rupert Sheldrake gives a theoretical ground which would explain experiences such telepathy with his idea of morphic resonance.
Of course, you are really asking about the study of actual experiences. The real challenge would be for a trainee clinical psychologist to come up with a research study into this area and get it accepted. I once knew someone who managed to get involved in some MA research on this but I don't think it was in England.
As it is, psychology is often in service to the psychiatric profession and that affects funding. The big companies behind psychiatry are the drug companies and they are at the top of the hierarchy. The psychologists work alongside them and researchers of a cognitive behavioral therapy is ranked above all because it is cost-effective.
But I do believe that there are people within the profession of psychology who would welcome an exploration of the field of psychic phenomena, so in time it may happen.

A final thought:
Part of the problem may be that in order for a proper study of parapsychology to happen the benefits of such studies would have to be shown. You obviously have an interest in the field to start the thread, but you do not actually state why you think it is important to consider. Also, do you think it falls within the realm of philosophy itself?

There was research done in the paranormal. Unfortunately or fortunately, you be the judge, all positive findings of such phenomena have been demonstrated to be due to flaws in experimental design, errors when conducting experiments and even deliberately falsifying data. I guess interest slowly faded away with the lack of evidence to support the paranormal and funding with it.

Whenever I hear about those that study psychics, telepathy, remote viewing, and the like it is usually some specialized group that studies nothing else — TiredThinker

Well, that is generally true of specialists. You will find the same with black holes or medieval French literature.

But as for your general question, there has been a fair bit of non-crank research into some areas with paranormal associations, such as near-death experiences. It depends on the character of the claim, how conducive it is to scientific study.

There might be a difference between psychic telepathy and demonstrable scientific telepathy.

Ordinary language is a superposition upon a vague cultural complex of words and rules that are codified as formal language. In order to speak, we must infer subjective agency and context to any utterance before we can adequately effectively communicate with another person. With and especially without language a degree of irrational empathy is required.

This empathy is noticeably different from person to person and is sometimes labeled as or attributed to EQ, Emotional Quotient . I assume some loose scientific studies exist that gave this phenomenon its name.

Telepathy is different. Reading minds without cultural, circumstantial, or verbal clues ought to be more difficult to do and harder to assess scientifically from a researcher's perspective.

I think it falls into the realm of people shying away from topics that are probably of interest to nearly everyone. We mostly all want to know where if anywhere we go when we die. I am not aware of too much strong evidence that we have more than 5 physical senses and yet the research seems to go on in fringe groups and haunted house shows become popular. When the CIA supposedly quit remote viewing research in the mid 90s they claimed their results weren't "actionable." I don't know what to make of that. But 20 years of research either means they found something, they wanted to just make the Russians paranoid, or they had extra government money and decided to spend it on prostitutes and LSD. Lol.

I don't expect such research needs too much money for legit researchers to do it well on the side from their main research.

I think that the reason why psychic matters are not funded by universities is that many academics do not take such matters seriously. — Jack Cummins

Psychic research can be easily and inexpensively conducted even by middle schoolers. Funding is not the problem. Academics value their research time and don't want to waste it in unproductive areas. If there was even a glimmer of hope that psychic research would be publishable it would happen.

So what's wrong? Nothing.

The underlying issue is the weakness of statistics for small samples. Even when telepathy might seem obvious to a casual bystander, the statistics will prove insignificant and the research a waste of time.

I think that the reason why psychic matters are not funded by universities is that many academics do not take such matters seriously. — Jack Cummins

That is, they're terrified of what their peers would think. Being any kind of professional intellectual requires one to color pretty carefully within the lines of the group consensus.

I don't expect such research needs too much money for legit researchers to do it well on the side from their main research — TiredThinker

What about funding agencies wanting detailed reports on how their money is being used? There's no way you can sneak in experiments in the paranormal in there without raising a few eyebrows.

What about funding agencies wanting detailed reports on how their money is being used? There's no way you can sneak in experiments in the paranormal in there without raising a few eyebrows. — TheMadFool

This is true. And those who do research in the paranormal are just as equally liable to show income statments and statement of assets and liabilities to banks, lending institutes, and the revenue service of the country they operate in as every other business or individual.

I think the research can use their own money if it was a topic of interest. I could probably do this type of research with very little money except who would believe me as I have no creditials or background in well done experiments.

So bottom line is it's fear of seeming foolish and perhaps no tangible reward to benefit other than reassurance of existence after this?

The problem I think would be coming up with a suitable conjecture that could be tested scientifically using refutation. Whilst I have not studied this area, many people have come up with ideas about psychic abilities, but as far as I am aware, none of the studies have been able to stand up to a proper process of refutational testing.

Suppose you decide to test tens of thousands of people with a simple test: see if any of them can do significantly and consistently better than chance at the predicting the color of the next card drawn from a shuffled deck. Even if you got somebody with a verifiable ability to do this, what would you investigate next?

I think if you set out looking for a statistically significant correlation, you generally have some idea of the realm in which you could discover a mechanism to explain the observed correlation. My understanding is that medicine worked this way for a long time -- you can figure out that a drug is effective without knowing what the mechanism is, but you know what kind of thing someone else with better tech, better theories, and better experiments might someday show to be the mechanism.

If you could show that some individual has an uncanny ability to predict the colors of playing cards, what kind of thing do you imagine could be the mechanism for that? A lot of science is stamp collecting, but it is stamp collecting that contributes to much broader research programs, and if you can't even imagine what such a program would be, why bother collecting the stamps?

why bother collecting the stamps? — Srap Tasmaner

Apples fell on people's heads for tens of thosuands of years before one looked at that stamp and said, Hey, this makes sense if you use this hypotheses.

The science of new endeavour starts with looking at strange stamps, and putting them together to form a full set. Nobody hands you a full set from the other side of nature. This is why the Bible is false, for instance.

But forbidding of looking at strange stamps or denying yourself the paractice, will forever deny you the possiblity of collecting a full set.

I am, personally, abhorred by supernatural claims, they scare me, I think they come directly from the Djinnes that ride mad aryan capricorns on your chest around where your heart is, when you have a nightmare. (One day I will photograph that and publish it at the New England Journal of Medicine. I already have a photographer lined up, Bigfoot, but he is not getting the concept. As of yet.)

The rhetoric you gave, Srap, I think is limping a bit. In fact, there is no scientific explanation agaisnt researching supernatural claims. The results are all negative, and that should deter us only in the financial aspect of research, not in the scientific aspect.

I only meant to suggest the lack of an institutional motivation; I wasn't trying to justify not being curious about what goes on in the world.