Report 02/11

Recurrent grants for 2002-03

Executive summary (read on-line)

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Report
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Annex A - Descriptions of columns in Tables 1 and 2
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Table 1   Resources for academic year 2002-03
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Table 2   Comparison with 2001-02 academic year grant
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Table 3   Special funding and earmarked capital grants for 2002-03
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Executive summary

Purpose

1.   This document summarises our provisional allocations of recurrent funding to institutions for the academic year 2002-03.

2.   The HEFCE Board agreed the allocations on 27 February 2002. We wrote to all institutions individually on 5 March 2002.

Key points

General

3.   All years relate to academic years – that is, 1 August to 31 July.

4.   We are distributing £5,076 million in 2002-03, an increase of 6.8 per cent compared with 2001-02. Funding for teaching has increased by 3.6 per cent (1.1 per cent in real terms), allowing us to fund an additional 23,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) places for 2002-03. Funding for research has increased by 5.9 per cent. We are also providing an additional £62 million for earmarked capital funding and £40 million extra for rewarding and developing staff in higher education, compared with the allocations for 2001-02. The overall unit of resource for teaching (including fee income and a pro rata share of funds for rewarding and developing staff) has increased by 3.5 per cent compared with 2001-02.

5.   The total comprises £3,271 million for teaching, £940 million for research, £443 million for special funding, £302 million for earmarked capital funding, and £120 million for rewarding and developing staff.

Teaching

6.   The total of £3,271 million for teaching for 2002-03 includes the following:

1. £22 million for additional funded students, allocated in response to the new bids invited in HEFCE 01/54, 'Additional student places and funds 2002-03'.
2. £23 million for additional funded students in 2002-03, allocated in response to earlier bidding exercises.
3. £13 million for increases in medical student numbers.
4. £47 million to support widening participation for those from under-represented groups and disabled students.

Research

7.   A total of £940 million is allocated for research. This is an increase of 5.9 per cent compared with 2001-02, but is sufficient to maintain the average unit of resource only for departments with the highest quality rating of 5* in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). For all other departments, it means a reduction in the average unit of resource, because of the overall improvement in research quality that institutions have achieved.

Moderation of teaching and research

8.   We have continued our policy of phasing in changes by moderating the allocations. Institutions will not in general receive a reduction in resource (teaching and research grant, plus regulated fee income) of more than 2 per cent in real terms compared with the equivalent figure for 2001-02. However, for 2002-03, moderation will be against unmoderated funding totals for 2001-02.

Special funding and earmarked capital

9.   Most of our grants for teaching and research are allocated by formula. In addition, we distribute special funding for specific purposes. In 2002-03, this funding totals £443 million. We will also allocate £302 million for earmarked capital grants, and £120 million for rewarding and developing staff in higher education.

Student numbers

10.   We have provided for an additional 23,000 FTE students for 2002-03. Of these, 6,100 have been allocated through the most recent bidding exercise announced in HEFCE 01/54.

11.   The Department for Education and Skills has agreed that we should no longer set maximum student numbers for each institution. This was the mechanism by which we ensured that the actual number of full-time and sandwich undergraduate students did not exceed the Government's target. Our general funding method does, however, still limit the total student numbers that institutions can recruit, so that institutions seeking significant expansion can do so only by bidding successfully for fully funded additional places.

12.   For institutions securing additional places in the additional student numbers competition, we set targets for FTE student numbers to ensure that they deliver the overall growth in recruitment expected of them arising from their successful bids.

13.   We will continue to monitor recruitment to foundation and sub-degree courses, to ensure that planned increases are delivered.

Action required

14.   No action is required in response to this document.