1 March 2007
Funding of over £7 billion supports strong growth in student numbers in higher education
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) announced today that it will make available £7,137 million in funding for 2007-08 to universities and colleges in England. The total grant represents an overall cash increase of 6.4 per cent compared with 2006-07.
Today's announcement provides:
- an additional 33,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students for 2007-08
- a further 16,000 FTEs for 2007-08 and 2008-09 to support growth in key areas, such as foundation degrees, courses co-funded with employers, and Lifelong Learning Networks, which enable students following vocational courses to progress into and through higher education
- a 2.75 per cent increase in the unit of funding per student for teaching
- a 2.7 per cent increase in funding for widening participation
- a 5.4 per cent increase in research funding (see note 4).
Additional funding of £25 million will be allocated for certain very high cost science subjects that are important to society and the economy, but may be vulnerable because of relatively low student demand. These are physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, and mineral, metallurgy and materials engineering.
Professor David Eastwood, Chief Executive of HEFCE, said:
'This is a good settlement for universities and colleges, providing both stability in terms of their forward planning and a healthy rate of growth.
'We are making available £213 million to support almost 50,000 extra (FTE) student places over the two years, which represents a 5 per cent growth in student numbers on current figures. The recent UCAS figures showing rising demand for undergraduate places are very welcome in view of this planned growth. Applications show that science subjects of strategic importance are growing in popularity again. This is particularly encouraging in view of the additional £25 million over each of the next three years that we are providing to support these very high cost subjects.
'The additional funded numbers we are providing will add to the diversity of the student population and help to increase participation rates in higher education. It is also particularly important for the overall health of the sector that we are able to fund these additional places while maintaining the unit of funding per student.'
Minister for Higher Education, Bill Rammell, said:
'I am pleased to see funding for additional student numbers and continued support for widening participation which is a priority for the Government. This is particularly important considering the recent UCAS figures which have seen a big increase in applicants with 19,000 more applicants from England compared to last year - an increase of 7.1 per cent. These highest ever figures show that tuition fees are not putting students off applying to university as many predicted. The critics of the new system are being proved emphatically wrong.'
'I very much welcome HEFCE's commitment to further boost employer engagement as we asked them to do in our most recent grant letter and also the continued commitment to strategically important subjects such as science and engineering which will benefit from additional funding of £25 million.'
Notes
1. Full details of the recurrent grants and tables showing allocations to individual institutions are given in HEFCE 2007/06, 'Recurrent grants for 2007-08'. These allocations are provisional; final allocations will be announced in July 2007. The total funding available for 2007-08, including non-recurrent funding, is summarised in Note 7.
Summary tables
Regional tables
2. HEFCE funds 132 higher education institutions and directly funds higher education courses at 143 further education colleges. Grants for individual universities and colleges are calculated by formula according to the number of students and the subject mix, and the volume and quality of research.
3. Today's announcement shows the distribution to universities and colleges of £4,438 million for teaching (of which £349 million is for widening participation), and £1,413 million for research. See Note 7 and table for total funding available.
4. The funding for research includes £60 million to support institutions in undertaking research with business and industry, and £180 million to support high quality research funded by charities. The research funding provides for an average increase of 4.9 per cent for research rated as 4, 5 and 5* (five star) in the last Research Assessment Exercise, on a like-for-like basis.
5. A further £738 million is being provided for earmarked capital grants, £449 million for initiatives allocated as special funding, and £76 million for other elements of teaching and research grant where allocations to institutions are still to be finalised.
6. None of the increases shown in the publication HEFCE 2007/06 take account of the additional income from the introduction in 2006-07 of variable fees for full-time undergraduates.
7. The table below reconciles the institutional allocations announced today with the total funding available for 2007-08.
| Institutional allocations announced today | Allocations being made later | Total |
|---|---|---|
| £4,438 million for teaching, of which £349 million for widening participation | £67 million for 16,000 additional funded FTE places for 2007-08 and 2008-09. £5 million funding for widening participation |
£4,510 million for teaching, of which £354 million for widening participation |
| £1,413 million for research | £2 million for a joint veterinary science research initiative with DEFRA | £1,415 million for research |
| £23 million for very high cost and vulnerable science subjects | £2 million to be allocated in the light of responses from institutions | £25 million for very high cost and vulnerable science subjects |
| £738 million for earmarked capital grants | £738 million for earmarked capital grants | |
| £449 million for special funding | £449 million for special funding | |
| £5,874 million total | £1,263 million total | £7,137 million total |