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What HEFCE does

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) distributes public money to universities and colleges in England that provide higher education. Most of this goes to the 130 universities and higher education colleges in England. We do not provide grants or loans for individual students. Information on the amount of funding we allocate is available under Finance & assurance.

Some HEFCE funds support higher education courses in 124 directly-funded further education colleges, but the main funding body for further education is the Learning and Skills Council. Grants for universities and colleges in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are allocated by their own funding bodies.

Our funds support four main areas of activity by universities and colleges, which are reflected in our strategic aims and in the Government's White Paper, 'The future of higher education'.

HEFCE was set up by the Government in 1992 as a 'non-departmental public body' [note]. This means that we work within a policy framework set by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, but we are not part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). We have distinct statutory duties that are free from direct political control.

The broad policy framework we work within is set out in the Management Statement between HEFCE and BIS. The terms and conditions under which BIS makes funds available to us so that we can carry out our duties is set out in the Financial Memorandum between BIS and HEFCE. Both documents are revised periodically; the most recent versions can be downloaded below. Note that in 2006 higher education formed part of the remit of the former Department for Education and Skills (DfES); BIS is a successor body formed in June 2009.

Management statement between DfES and HEFCE (June 2006)

[ Adobe PDF 100K | MS Word 181K ]

Financial memorandum between DfES and HEFCE (June 2006)

[ Adobe PDF 298K | MS Word 480K ]

What we do - at a glance

  • distribute money to universities and colleges for higher education teaching, research and related activities
  • fund programmes to support the development of higher education
  • monitor the financial and managerial health of universities and colleges
  • ensure the quality of teaching is assessed
  • provide money to further education colleges for their higher education programmes
  • provide guidance on good practice.

Legislation and other milestones in higher education since HEFCE was formed.

Further information on our role is available in our Standards of service.

Review of HEFCE

We are planning to carry out a review of our efficiency and effectiveness, including in the areas of policy development and advice to others, policy implementation, accountability for public funding and promotion of best practice within HEIs.

We have formally assessed the impact that the review itself is likely to have on the HE sector in terms of regulatory burden, equality and diversity, and sustainable development.

Sector impact assessment of HEFCE review

[ Adobe PDF 34K | MS Word 103K ]

Note

A non-departmental public body (NDPB) is an organisation that has a role in government processes, but which is not part of the Government or one of its departments. As a consequence, NDPBs work at arm's length from ministers, who are ultimately responsible for their effectiveness and efficiency.

Last updated 25 March 2009