April 2004/15
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| To: | Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions Heads of HEFCE-funded further education colleges |
| Of interest to those responsible for: | Strategic planning, Funding, Access, Quality assurance, Curriculum development |
| Reference: | 2004/15 |
| Publication date: | April 2004 |
| Enquiries to: | Chris Taylor tel 0117 9317264 e-mail c.taylor@hefce.ac.uk |
Executive summary (read on-line)
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Executive summary
Purpose
1. This document announces the allocations of development funds and additional places for foundation degrees for 2004-05 to 2005-06.
Key points
2. Foundation degrees are two-year vocational qualifications that aim to give people the intermediate technical and professional skills that are in demand from employers, and to provide more flexible and accessible ways of studying.
3. To support the Government's plans for expanding foundation degrees, we invited bids last year (in HEFCE 2003/48) for additional places and for funds to develop new programmes and/or to replace Higher National Diploma places with foundation degrees.
4. We particularly encouraged bids that would:
- deliver high quality foundation degree programmes
- involve employers in the design, delivery and review of the programmes
- help to meet local, regional and/or national skills needs
- increase the number of foundation degree students overall
- widen participation by increasing the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds
- be delivered through further education colleges (FECs).
5. All figures are expressed in headcounts unless otherwise stated.
6. All higher education institutions (HEIs) and FECs that we fund directly were eligible to bid. We received a total of 122 bids, with 81 from HEIs and 41 from directly-funded FECs, for a total of 386 foundation degree programmes. In total the bids involved 226 FECs, mostly through indirect funding arrangements with HEIs, in delivering most of the programmes. The bids sought 11,497 full-time equivalent (FTE) places in total, of which 9,302 were to start in 2004-05 and 2,195 in 2005-06. We received bids for funds to develop 114 new programmes.
7. We have allocated for 2004-05 a total of 7,185 new places (5,211 FTE) at foundation degree level in the competition. Full-time places were 2,524 of the total, and the remaining 4,661 places (2,687 FTE) were for part-time programmes. For 2005-06 a total of 5,013 new places (3,749 FTE) have been allocated with full-time places making up 2,133 of the total with the remaining 2,880 places (1,616 FTE) being for part-time provision.
Action required
8. No action is required: this report is for information.