Advice on Oxford and Cambridge college fees accepted
The Secretary of State for Education and Employment has welcomed the Council's advice on how public funds for Oxford and Cambridge undergraduate college fees can be incorporated within the Council's standard funding method, while ensuring that excellence is maintained.
The DfEE has told the Council that, on the basis of this advice, public funds for undergraduate college fees will be transferred from local education authorities to the HEFCE with effect from 1999-2000. The Secretary of State said he would expect excellence at the two universities to be further safeguarded by the substantial new funding for research provided by the grant settlement.
The Council's advice includes:
- taking account of college research staff in allocating funding for research
- recognising the extra costs of institutions with old and historic buildings, and of small institutions, in the funding method for teaching
- ensuring accountability for the public funds involved
- phasing the changes in over a 10 year period.
In line with the original remit from the Secretary of State, the HEFCE's advice assumes that the two universities will continue to receive postgraduate college fees on the same basis as now, from the Research Councils and the Arts and Humanities Research Board. Both universities are making arrangements to redistribute private funds between colleges, to ensure that the student experience is safeguarded.
Mr Brian Fender, Chief Executive of the HEFCE, said:
"The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are world-class centres of excellence. We have developed the advice to the Secretary of State in close association with them. I am very pleased we have found a solution which maintains excellence and safeguards the student experience, while also respecting the unique relationship between the universities and the colleges."At the same time we have not compromised the principles of our funding method. The funding premiums which we will apply to Oxford and Cambridge will also relate to other institutions where the same characteristics are found."
The settlement means that there will be a continuing flow of additional public funds to the two universities, in recognition of their distinctive characteristics. The amount of these funds will be reduced over a 10 year period to two-thirds of the net income they currently receive in college fees (£36.3 million).
The Council will start phasing in the one-third reduction in the net college fee income from 1999-2000.
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