Park avenue opening plenary ed hughes

An overview of current HE funding and regulatory issues – perspectives from HEFCE

Ed HughesHEFCE

AUA South Wales & South West conferenceMay2015

The political context

• HEFCE funds and regulates universities and colleges in England.

• We invest on behalf of students and the public to promote excellence and innovation in research, teaching and knowledge exchange.

• We inform, develop and implement government policy to benefit the higher education sector, students, and society.

About HEFCE

HEFCE’s support for Higher Education

Breakdown of real terms teaching income to HEIs 2009-10 to 2015-16

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

£ m

illio

ns

Other fee income

Dept of Health feeincome (home & EU)

Overseas fee income(non EU)

Full-time undergraduatefee income (home & EU)

Other funding bodygrants

HEFCE Teaching grant

2009-10 to 2011-12: actual income2012-13 to 2015-16: forecast income

2014-15 2015-16 Change

Recurrent teaching 1,582 1,418 -164

Recurrent research 1,558 1,558 0

Recurrent knowledge exchange 160 160 0

Sub-total recurrent 3,300 3,137 -164

Transitional research N/A 52 52

National facilities & initiatives 143 130 -13

Capital 440 603 +163

NSP and PSS 50 (NSP) 50 (PSS) 0

Total 3,933 3,972 +39

Changes to budgets 2014-15 to 2015-16All figures in £Ms

Research funding 2015-16

• First year that research funding is larger than teaching funding

• First year of funding informed by REF 2014

• REF increases in volume at:

• 4*: 70%

• 3*: 24%

• 3*+4*: 39%

Development of method to maintain same underlying policy intent – see circular letter 03/2015 (1)Mainstream QR (£1,017M)

• Three separate ‘competitions’ based on REF sub-profiles: 65% for outputs; 20% for impact; 15% for environment

• Funding allocated to the 4 REF main panels based on cost-weighted volume at 3* and above:

• Cost weights unchanged

• No longer necessary to protect STEM in determining quanta

• Funding allocated to UOAs and institutions based on quality-weighted and cost-weighted volume at 3* and above:

• Quality relativity between 4* and 3* changed from 3:1 to 4:1

• Adjustment for UOAs that include Psychology and Geography

Research funding for 2015-16

Teaching funding for 2015-16

• Continuing transition to the new fee regime

• Uplift for inflation to priority areas

• End of the three-stage recalculation process

• Removal of SNCs from all HEFCE-funded providers

2014-15 Adjusted

2015-16 March 2015

Change

Main subject-based allocations for old- and new-regime students

972 750 -223

Student opportunity 366 377 +11

Other targeted allocations 247 245 -2

Funding for 2015-16 set aside 0 46 46

Total 1,585 1,418 -167

Changes to teaching grants 2014-15 to 2015-16

All figures in £Ms

Same funding method as for 2014-15 but updated data£150M distributed based on HE-BCI income data for 2011-12 to 2013-14

• Years weighted 1:2:7 as before

• Income from contract research; consultancy; equipment and facilities; regeneration; intellectual property; non-credit-bearing courses; knowledge transfer partnerships

• Absolute cap of £2.85M

• Threshold allocation of £250k

• Year-on-year changes restricted to no more than ±50%

£10M supplement for those subject to the top cap distributed based on same HE-BCI income data

• Subject to maximum and minimum allocations of £500k and £200k respectively

Knowledge exchange funding for 2015-16

Undergraduate Student numbers

• 2014-15 growth in FT UG entrants was around 10k, compared to Government allowance of up to 30k

• Early UCAS data suggests 2% increase for 2015-16 (c. another 10k)

• All-year numbers in 2015-16 could increase by c. 40,000

HEFCE’s policy priorities for postgraduate education

• Postgraduate Support Scheme

• Postgraduate research

• Review of finance for postgraduate education

• Information for postgraduate students

Certain17%

Likely27%

Not sure25%

Unlikely22%

Definitely not9%

IAGS 2013: how likely are you to progress to pg study?

What factors put you off studying at postgraduate level?

%

21

62

13

33

25

7

2

3

1

18

44

16

16

'

Not applicable

Lack of flexibility in delivery method

Lack of flexibility in timetable

Lack of comparable information

Family and personal commitments

PG study is time consuming

PG qualifications are not a requirement

Not knowing what to study

Being in a job

I do not want to study at PG level

Fear of debt

Overall cost of living

Course fees

IAGS 2013: what factors put you off studying at PG level? (students who were neither ‘certain’ nor ‘likely’)

UK, other EU and non-EU full-time taught masters* entrants

* Taught masters programmes include those such as MSc, MA, MBA and MRes. Entrants to other taught postgraduate programmes such as PGCEs, professional postgraduate courses and postgraduate certificates/diplomas are not included in the figures shown here.

International and EU entrants to HE in England (ug and pg)

Source: Analysis of the HESA standard registration population at English HEIs, 2008 – 20013. Note: growth rates shown are year-on-year.

The operating framework for HE in England

HEFCE register of HE provision (to include all designated providers)

Designation for student support

purposes

Designation for receipt of HEFCE

grant

Granting of Degree Awarding Powers

Granting of University

Title/University College Title

Agre

emen

t with

all

desig

nate

d pr

ovid

ers Risk assessment and responseRegulatory inputs

Academic standards and quality enhancement

Student experience

Access and participation

Financial sustainability and governance

Information provision

Oversight role

Single regulatory frameworkGateway

The higher education funding bodies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are to seek views on future approaches to the assessment of quality in higher education.

(7 October 2014 press release)

Each funding body has a statutory duty to provide for the assessment of quality in the institutions that they fund

Quality assessment in the future

A two stage process:• A wide-ranging discussion document published on 15

January 2015• Discussion and debate with stakeholders supported through

a series of events from January-March 2015• A stage two consultation document, setting out issues and

options for future approaches, to be published in summer 2015

• Further engagement with stakeholders from May-July 2015• Funding bodies decide whether, and if so, what to tender

More information at: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/lt/qa/review/

Quality assessment in the future

Developments in Teaching Quality

Teaching ExcellenceRegulation &

GatewaysQuality Assessment

Medium and longer-term issues

Thank you for listening

[email protected]

0117 931 7265