Invitation 98/56

Additional student places and funds: Invitation to bid

Respond by 4 December 1998

Summary

Purpose

1. This publication invites bids for additional student places and funds for 1999-2000. Bids may be for full-time or part-time, sub-degree, degree or postgraduate taught places.

Key Points

2. The Government has announced that it will make available funds to support 35,000 additional student places for 1999-2000. A small number of further places may become available if recruitment overall in 1998-99 is below the targets set.

3. All higher education institutions directly funded by the Council and all further education sector colleges are eligible to submit bids. These include institutions who wish to offer higher education courses for the first time in 1999-2000.

4. The framework for this initiative was set in 1997 and supports the key national priorities of widening access to higher education, increasing opportunities for students, increasing provision below degree level, and rewarding high quality learning and teaching. For 1999-2000, therefore, we are inviting bids that will:

a. Reward high quality in learning and teaching;

b. Widen access to higher education.

Bids may address either or both of these priorities.

Action required

5. Institutions should send hard copies of bids and disks to the Additional Numbers Team, HEFCE, Northavon House, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QD, to arrive no later than 1700 on 4 December 1998.

Introduction

6. In October 1997, following consultation with institutions, we announced the overall framework for allocating additional funded student places. This was to enable institutions to:

• respond strategically to changes in student demand and to changes in their environment
• respond to regional needs and develop innovative approaches to delivering HE
• respond to the national priorities of expanding sub-degree provision and widening access to HE
• give students the opportunity to undertake high quality study at institutions of their choice (Circular 20/97 'Additional Student Numbers and funds 1998-99').
  

7. We set this framework for up to three years, subject to annual changes to our specific priorities in response to national and institutional objectives.

8. Key national objectives that will influence the allocation of additional HE provision are:

• making places available to all those capable of benefiting from higher education
• increasing the focus on provision below degree level, especially in further education colleges, so that these courses can be available in most localities
• widening access into HE for full-time and part-time study
• rewarding high quality learning and teaching.
  

9. We are currently consulting institutions about two major funding initiatives to pursue these objectives:

• our strategy for widening access and participation and our related funding proposals (HEFCE 98/39)
• our proposals to promote and enhance high quality learning and teaching (HEFCE 98/40).
  

10. In the light of responses to our consultation proposals, we aim to announce decisions on implementing the two initiatives by January 1999. These decisions will include the priorities that we adopt in allocating additional student places for 2000-2001 and beyond. In the meantime, for 1999-2000, we intend to allocate additional places according to the priorities set out below.

11. In July 1998, the Government announced 35,000 extra student places in 1999-2000, giving further scope for widening access. We shall allocate places according to the relative merits of the bids, based upon how well they address the criteria below. We shall expect the allocations to make a major contribution to widening access as well as rewarding institutions with high quality learning and teaching programmes.

Purpose

12. For 1999-2000, we are inviting bids that will:

a. Reward high quality in learning and teaching and/or

b. Widen access to higher education.

13 In particular, we invite bids to widen access to HE that are in line with the following specific policy objectives:

• to offer programmes which lead to qualifications below degree level, such as BTEC EDEXCEL Higher National Diploma (HND) and Higher National Certificate (HNC) courses
• to increase the range of higher education options within a region, particularly by focusing the additional provision in FE sector colleges
• to help meet the skill shortages for graduates.
  

14. We recognise the particular contribution that further education sector colleges can make, for example:

• improving local access in geographical areas not served by a higher education institution (HEI)
• offering particular subject specialisms and courses not well covered by HEIs
• providing what many students perceive as a more supportive learning environment
• providing diplomas in HE, and HND and HNC courses.
  

15. We would expect FE sector colleges with HE provision to benefit from the emphasis given to HE diploma-led provision in the Government's plans for growth in HE.

16. We will look to both HEIs and FE sector colleges to encourage and improve the development of progression routes to degree level, and the development of HE diploma-led qualifications as routes into employment, so that students can have a range of stepping-off points below degree level.

17. All bids should address the criteria described in paragraphs 18 - 24 below. In addition, bids seeking student places in reward for high quality learning and teaching should address paragraph 25, and bids seeking places to widen access should address paragraphs 26 - 29 below.

Criteria

Mission and strategy

18. All bids should show how they fit with the institution's mission and strategy. We would expect institutions to comment on:

a. How the bid fits with institutional priorities and what it will help to deliver.

b. How the bid builds on existing strengths.

c. The impact the bid will have on resources (for example, space, equipment, staff recruitment and training, and student support services), and how the institution will meet these additional demands.

Student and employer demand

19. Institutions should explain how their bids meet student demand, and should refer to evidence of that demand, either for the institution as a whole or for specific, related programmes. We would expect the evidence to include an evaluation of data on past applications, recruitment, progression and employability. Where relevant, institutions should provide information on other external demand, such as labour market demand, through reference to support for their bids from sponsors and employers.

20. We will also look to HEIs and FE sector colleges to develop effective strategies for responding to critical skills shortages and gaps, focusing especially on IT skills. The first report of the National Skills Task Force 'Towards a National Skills Agenda' ('Towards a National Skills Agenda', first report of the National Skills Taskforce, DfEE, 1998 (Ref SKT1)) highlights this area as a key theme in addressing skills shortages. The report calls for education providers to understand how skill needs are changing, and to respond to the requirements of employers and individuals. It also urges existing providers to focus on ensuring that they are delivering education and training in forms suitable for the more demanding lifestyles and particular needs of adults.

Quality

21. Institutions should provide information about both their own assessment of their quality of learning and teaching and any external assessments they have received. Where institutions bid to extend existing courses, we would expect the evidence to relate mainly to those courses. Where bids are for new courses, we will look for evidence of quality across a range of current provision at the institution; these bids will also need to refer to quality assurance arrangements. Institutions that have not previously offered HE courses, or where no existing HE course has been assessed, should provide evidence of quality in their FE teaching, and information about the quality assurance arrangements for HE that they have put in place.

22. We would expect institutions to comment, where relevant, on the evidence provided by:

• external assessment reports at programme and institutional level
• reports from professional and accreditation bodies
• statistics on student progression in HE
• employers' statements
• first destination information
• employment rates of diplomates and graduates.
  

23. Institutions may wish to draw upon other evidence of their quality of learning and teaching, including information on student demand.

Programme and course development

24. We will look favourably on bids which provide identified benefits to students through developments in the curriculum or in its delivery.

Specific priorities

Rewarding high quality in learning and teaching

25. Under this route, we aim to reward institutions that can show evidence of high quality in learning and teaching. Therefore bids addressing this priority should be able to demonstrate high quality through the information they provide under paragraphs 21- 23 above.

Widening access

26. In addition to the information provided under paragraphs 18 - 24 above, institutions seeking support to widen access should demonstrate how their particular programme widens access to groups currently under-represented in higher education. Bids should address one or more of the policy objectives below.

Providing qualifications below degree level

27. Bids addressing this objective should:

• show how the bid will provide increased opportunities for students
• explain the particular features of the institution that make it well placed to attract students locally
• comment on the institution's success to date in widening participation
• specify the opportunities that will exist for students to progress in higher education.
  

Increasing the range of higher education options within a region

28. Bids addressing this objective should:

• show how the bid will provide increased opportunities for students
• comment on the range of related options currently available in the region
• show how the proposal will increase the current range of options
• explain what impact the proposal will have regionally.
  

Helping to meet skill shortages for graduates

29. Bids addressing this objective should:

• refer to evidence from employers and others of skill shortages
• specify the contribution that the bid will make to alleviating known skill shortages
• explain what the institution will do to attract students to the programme
• comment on the institution's success to date in addressing skill shortages.
  

Bidding rules

Eligibility

30. All HEIs directly funded by the Council and all FE sector colleges are eligible to submit bids. These include institutions who wish to offer HE courses for the first time in 1999-2000. Bids may be for full-time or part-time, sub-degree, degree or postgraduate taught programmes.

31. Collaborative bids should be submitted by the lead institution, to ensure clear lines of accountability for student numbers, funds and quality assurance. We will allocate student places to the lead institution, which may be an HEI or an FE sector college.

32. We will not consider bids for funded student places in undergraduate medicine and dentistry, initial teacher training (primary and secondary), and subjects funded by the Department of Health.

Student places

33. The Government has announced that it will make available funds to support 35,000 additional student places for 1999-2000. Twenty thousand of these will be for part-time, and 15,000 for full-time provision. Within the overall figure of 35,000 additional places, 15,000 will be for courses below degree level. A small number of further places may become available if recruitment overall in 1998-99 is below the targets set.

34. We encourage institutions to submit bids which will have a significant impact upon provision, while still being realistic about their rate of growth. When assessing bids, we will take into account the size of the institution's current higher education provision. Thus we would expect to see some justification in the case of a large higher education provider seeking small numbers. Equally, we would expect to see justification from a small higher education provider seeking proportionally large numbers, and from an FE sector college which has not hitherto provided any HE. In the case of bids for full-time undergraduate students, we would not normally expect to see any bids for fewer than 25 places.

35. We intend to allocate a single uplift in funding and student numbers for 1999-2000. This will not increase to allow for subsequent intakes where courses are for more than one year's duration. The funds and student numbers will roll into institutions' core provision for subsequent years. We recognise that in exceptional circumstances institutions may have to phase their allocation across academic years.

36. We will adjust institutions' Maximum Aggregate Student Numbers as necessary.

Funding

37. We will fund successful bids in line with our teaching funding methodology. For HEIs this will be at the sector standard rate in the relevant price group or groups. For FE sector colleges, we will be consulting later in the autumn about longer term funding arrangements. For 1999-2000, we expect to apply the same funding principles to FE sector colleges as to HEIs.

Monitoring

38. We will publish details of successful bids.

39. The allocation of funds for teaching and research is informed by the data we collect from institutions. We will continue to audit these data selectively in this and future funding exercises. In addition, we may use data which institutions provide to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) or to the FEFC, to verify the data they submit directly to the HEFCE. The funds and student places allocated to successful bids will be subject to the conditions of grant set down in the Funding Agreement between the Council and each institution.

40. We will collect information on the recruitment of additional student places. This will include data to show separately recruitment to full-time and part-time places, and to sub-degree, degree and postgraduate courses. We may audit the extent to which institutions have implemented their bids.

Presentation

41. Annex A provides guidance on the presentation of bids.

Assessment of bids

42. An advisory panel will assess bids and advise the HEFCE Board.

Timetable

43. Institutions should post hard copies of bids and disks to the Additional Numbers Team, HEFCE, Northavon House, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QD, to arrive by 1700 on 4 December 1998.

44. We will announce allocations by the end of March 1999.

Annex A

Guide to the presentation of a bid

Bid content

1. Each bid should comprise:

• a disk containing cover sheet information
• a signed print-out of the cover sheet (also reproduced at the back of this document)
• a hard copy of up to four pages (eight sides) of A4
• a hard copy of supplementary material, if wished, of up to four pages (eight sides) of A4.
  

We will discard all other material.

2. Please staple the hard copy material together. Please do not add a title page, covers, special bindings, or enclose prospectuses or other material. A covering letter is not essential.

3. We encourage institutions to reference supplementary information rather than include it in the bid. You may assume we hold the following information, which will be available to the assessment panel:

• strategic plans (HEIs only)
• quality assessment outcomes
• data on study within home region, and mobility, and geodemographic data
• clearing data (HEIs only)
• data on non-completions, completions and achievement
• size of HE provision
  

4. We do not hold strategic plans for FE sector colleges. Therefore, these colleges may wish to provide a short summary of their business plans in addition to the material described in paragraph 1 above. The summary should not exceed one side of A4.

5. We will draw upon data from, among others, EDEXCEL, the FEFC, the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the Quality Assurance Agency, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, and the HEFCE's recent geodemographic research into access and participation.

6. Bids for qualifications below degree level should state whether EDEXCEL Centre and/or Qualification approvals have been given or sought. Where no application for EDEXCEL approval has been made, bids should provide information about:

• the qualification structure of the course
• the quality assurance and assessment procedures that will be used
• the learning opportunities that the course will provide for students
• the staff resources committed to the course.
  

7. We will call for additional information if the assessment panel requests it.

Cover sheet information

8. Name of institution. If the bid is collaborative, give the name of the lead institution, to which we would offer additional funded student places, and which would be accountable to us in the usual way. Institutions may describe the detail of the collaboration in the body of the bid.

9. Priorities. Please put an 'x' in the box/es against the priority/ies you wish to address.

10. Cost centre codes (HEIs only) or ISR Superclass II subject codes (FE sector colleges only). Cost centre and ISR codes will enable us to assign funded numbers appropriately within the four price groups. We will map the codes on to the appropriate price groups. The codes will also help us to analyse subject provision nationally and regionally in a uniform way. FE sector colleges should not attempt to use cost centre codes.

11. Subject. Please enter a very brief description of the subject area – for example, 'media', 'physics'.

12. Qualification codes. Enter the code for the initial higher education qualification which the course will offer:

1. Postgraduate taught qualification
2. Degree
3. Diploma in higher education (Dip HE)
4. Higher national diploma (HND)
5. Higher national certificate (HNC)
6. Other.
   

For example, if a proposed degree course offers an HND exit point, you should code the course as '4', not '2'.

13. Student numbers. These are the total numbers sought, and we normally expect to offer them in a single allocation for 1999-2000. You should express them as a headcount. We will convert these to full-time equivalents based on averages calculated at national level.

14. New provision. If the proposal brings new or additional provision to your institution, you should enter code 1. In other cases – for example, if provision will replace that currently franchised from another institution – enter code 0.

15. Signature. The cover sheet must be signed by the chief executive or her/his authorised officer, to indicate institutional support for the bid. In the case of a consortium bid, the signatory must be from the lead institution.

Disk notes

16. The disk contains two spreadsheet files:

• bids.xls (Excel version 5 format file)
• bids.wk1 (Lotus 123 format file).

Please complete one of them, using the software application that you prefer.

17. If the disk is corrupt or unreadable, please contact Rob Hopkins on 0117 931 7106 or Gill Rowley on 0117 931 7330.

18. It is advisable to make a back-up copy of the blank spreadsheet before beginning to insert data.

19. All labels and table formats will be protected, using spreadsheet cell protection facilities. Do not attempt to change the contents of protected cells, or the structure of the tables by adding or deleting rows or columns.

20. Use a different file name when saving your completed spreadsheet.

21. If you are submitting more than one bid, use a separate spreadsheet for each bid.

22. Before sending the disk back to the HEFCE, make a back-up copy in case the disk is corrupted in transit.

23. Please write the name of your institution on the disk label.

Submission details

24. For each bid, please return the disk and six copies of written material to the Additional Numbers Team, HEFCE, Northavon House, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QD, to arrive by 1700 hours on 4 December 1998.

25. Please enclose a self-addressed postcard if you wish us to acknowledge receipt of your bid.

26. We will not accept faxed or e-mailed bids.

Annex B

Cost centre codes (HEIs only)

01. Clinical medicine
02. Clinical dentistry
03. Veterinary science
04. Anatomy and physiology
05. Nursing and paramedical studies
06. Health and community studies
07. Psychology and behavioural sciences
08. Pharmacy
09. Pharmacology
10. Biosciences
11. Chemistry
12. Physics
13. Agriculture and forestry
14. Earth, marine and environmental sciences
15. General sciences
16. General engineering
17. Chemical engineering
18. Mineral, metallurgy and materials engineering
19. Civil engineering
20. Electrical, electronic and computer engineering
21. Mechanical, aero and production engineering
22. Other technologies
23. Architecture, built environment and planning
24. Mathematics
25. Information technology and systems sciences
26. Catering and hospitality management
27. Business and management studies
28. Geography
29. Social studies
30. Librarianship, communication and media studies
31. Language based studies
32. Humanities
33. Design and creative arts
34. Education
35. French, Spanish and German modern languages
36. Other modern languages
37. Archaeology
38. Sports science and leisure studies
39. Computer software engineering
41. Continuing education

Annex C

Superclass II subject codes (FE sector colleges only)

A. Business and management
B. Sales, marketing and distribution
C. Information technology and information
D. Humanities
E. Politics, economics, law and social sciences
F. Area studies, cultural studies, languages, literature
G. Education, training, teaching
H. Family care, et cetera
J. Arts et cetera
K. Authorship, et cetera
L. Performing arts
M. Sports and recreation
N. Hospitality, leisure, et cetera
P. Health care, et cetera
Q. Environment protection, et cetera
R. Science and mathematics
S. Agriculture, horticulture and animal care
T. Built environment
V. Services to industry
W. Manufacturing and production
X. Engineering
Y. Oil, mining, plastics, chemicals
Z. Transport services

NB When completing the cover sheet, please use the full two-digit Superclass II subject code. The FEFC's publication Funding Guidance 1998-99 (April 1998) lists these fully in its Appendix 3 to Annex A.

Annex D

Feedback from the 1998-99 initiative*

The Group welcomed the wide response to the initiative, and were pleased by the diversity of new developments which institutions proposed. However, institutions' own investment in the developments was not always very clear. Members were also surprised that institutions made a relatively limited response to the specific criterion of 'innovation'.

Overall, the proposals were of the highest quality when they focused on one or two specific criteria. Many claimed to meet all four specific criteria, and thereby set themselves a challenging task. Good bids distinguished themselves by their focus, conciseness and clarity. The quality of the proposals, in terms of how well they presented their case, varied a great deal. The strongest made clearly substantiated and realistic claims.

* Additional student numbers and funds: outcome of bids for 1998-99 (HEFCE Report 98/14)

Cover sheet

(This is available as a Word7 or .rtf file)

Additional student places and funds 1999-2000

Please complete the disk version and attach a signed print-out to the front of the bid (one cover sheet per bid).