Funding Higher Education: adequate steering instrument? Noël Vercruysse

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Funding Higher Education: adequate steering instrument?

IMHE General conferenceParis, 17-19 September 2012

Noël Vercruysse

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Outline

• Higher education in Flanders• Steering instruments• Funding model of higher education in Flanders– Architecture– Parameters– Calculation– Learning account

• Concluding remarks: strengths and weaknesses

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Higher Education in Flanders

• Institutions:• 6 universities:– 3 public universities– 3 private universities

• 21 university colleges:– 7 public – 14 private

• Specialized institutions: Management schools, Schools for theological (protestant) education

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Higher Education in Flanders

• Qualifications framework– Associate degrees: 90-120 ECTS– Bachelor degrees: 180 ECTS– Master degrees: 60-120-180 ECTS– Advanced bachelor degrees courses: 60 ECTS– Advanced master degree courses: 60-120 ECTS– PhD: 4 years

• Binary system:– Universities vs university colleges– Professionally oriented bachelor degree programmes vs

academically oriented bachelor degree programmes– All masters are academically oriented

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Professional bachelor(180 ects university colleges)

Master(min 60 ects, universities and university colleges)

Doctorate(universities)

Bridgingprogramme

bachelor after

bachelor

master after

master

Academic bachelor(180 ects, universities

and university colleges)

preparatoryprogramme

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Higher Education in Flanders• numbers2011-2012 enrollments diplomas

Bachelor - prof 95045 19624

Bachelor – acad - UC 19884 3865

Master UC 8653 4593

Total UC 123582 28082

Bachelor-acad –univ 49959 10234

Master 29284 12445

PhD 8245 1428

Total UNIV 88748 24107

Bridging programs 6107

Advanced masters 4262 1790

Advanced bachelors 2709 1305

total 231719 55224

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Higher education in Flanders

• Staff (all FTE)• Universities:– Academic staff (including PhD students): 13820– Administrative and technical staff: 6965

• University Colleges:– Academic staff: 8380– Administrative and technical staff: 3210

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Higher Education in Flanders

• Other figures:• Funding: – 1,5 billion euros from the ministry of education– 150 million euros from the ministry of research– 300 million euros from the research council and

the innovation council

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Steering Higher Education

• Jongbloed distinguishes 4 instruments– Regulations– Funding– Public production– dialogue

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Funding model - aims• To maintain and enhance quality of teaching and research• To increase the opportunities for students of all types of

background to get access to HE and to be supported towards a degree (supporting diversity)

• To enable HEIs to develop more flexible learning paths (supporting LLL)

• To encourage HEIs to develop opportunities which are more suitable to mature and employed students

• To maintain and enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the higher education provision both at system and institutional level

• To share responsibilities among government, institutions and students

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Funding model - architecture

• Overall architecture:• Teaching and research block grant• Targeted research block grant• Block grant for infrastructure• Block grant for student facilities and student

support services• Targeted allocations for widening access• The closed overall budget is distributed to the

HEIs according a complex funding formula

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Funding Model – parameters

• Teaching and research block grant contains:– A fixed allocation for teaching: 8-15%– An allocation varying according the volume of teaching activity– A fixed allocation for research– An allocation varying according the volume of research activity

• Factors influencing the calculation:– Input parameters: the number of registered units of credit

newly enrolled students have been enrolled – Output parameters: the number of credits awarded, the

number of degrees awarded (including a diploma-bonus), the number of publications and citations)

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Funding Model - calculation

• The numbers are calculated as an average of 5 academic years• Unit of credit (comparable to the taximeter model in

Denmark) pertaining to fulltime students as well parttime students, both degree students and single course students

• Study programmes taken into account: – All initial bachelor and master degree programmes– Subsequent bachelor programmes are only partially funded and

subsequent master programmes are not funded• Weighting factors according the discipline ranging from 1 to 3

(4,0 and 4,1 for medicine and some performing arts and music)

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Funding model – parameters (2)

• Extra weightings factors:– Students from underrepresented socio-economic groups– Disabled students– Students combining working and learning

• Evolution of the overall budget:– Yearly adjustement to the prices– Adjustement whenever there is an increase of at least

2% of the volume of teaching activity (the total volume of the number of funded unit of credits) compared to a reference volume, the overall budget increases with 2%

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Learning Account

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Income streams of a university

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Funding model - remarks• The model is demand-driven and there is competition• Closed overall budgets: competition among HEIs but if all

institutions are performing the overall budget increases;• Performance based system using a wide range of parameters:

great autonomy of the institutions to set their own priorities and avoiding uniformity;

• 5 – year timeframe for the data: stability: limited yearly changes in the institutional budget but not rewarding for fast growing HEIs

• Incentives for widening participation and a better articulation between the professionally oriented programmes and the master programmes (students in bridging programmes are fully funded)

• An equal treatment of full-time and part-time students

Department of Education and Training Division for higher and adult education

Funding model – remarks (2)• The funding model is not related to the quality• High pressure on the quality of the data needed• The model is lacking predictability for the individual HEI since the

allocation is depending on the performance of the other institutions• There is the danger that the institutions will copy the national

allocation model for their internal allocation of money among the departments

• Weighting factors are no longer reflecting the actual costs; they are favouring the natural sciences and life sciences at the disavantage of humanities and social sciences

• There is no real incentive for the internationalization • The model is discouraging researchers to undertaken research that is

relevant to policy making or society