Request 99/33

Widening participation in higher education

Request for initial statements of plans

Invitation to bid for special funds: 1999-2000 to 2001-02

Executive summary

1. Purpose

2. This document takes forward the decisions announced in HEFCE 99/24. It asks higher education institutions (HEIs) to provide initial statements of their plans for widening participation in higher education, and invites proposals for special funding from 1999-2000 to 2001-02 to help achieve these plans.

   Key points

3. We are requesting initial statements from all HEIs of their strategies for widening participation, including an indication of how they plan to use the additional funds they will receive from 1999-2000 under the formula-based grant allocation notified in March. These statements should incorporate clearly defined organisational and numerical targets. We will wish to monitor, through their subsequent annual operating statements, institutions’ success in attaining these targets.
4. We are considering what form of information we need from the further education colleges (FECs) we fund directly, both in relation to widening participation and more generally. So far as possible, we will co-ordinate our requirements with those of the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC). We will be writing separately to directly-funded FECs about this.
5. We are also continuing our special funding programme established in 1998-99, with a significantly enhanced level of funding. We have allocated £5 million per year over the three year period 1999-2000 to 2001-02 to this programme, which focuses on enhancing partnerships between HEIs and other organisations and on disseminating and embedding good practice.
6. HEIs funded by the HEFCE are eligible to bid for funds under this initiative. We would wish to see FECs and other organisations included in collaborative proposals led by an HEI. Partnership proposals should respond to a clear regional or local need and promote longer-term institutional commitment to widening participation. They should also address regional priorities, which are being identified at our regional seminars in May. We will confirm the regional priorities to institutions following the seminar in their region.
7. In addition to the £5 million of HEFCE funding, we have established with the FEFC an additional joint fund of £4 million. This funding is initially confirmed only for one year (1999-2000), but we anticipate that this level of funding will also be available in the subsequent two years. This joint fund will focus specifically on one major element within the widening participation agenda: namely, supporting proposals which will build pathways from further to higher education for disadvantaged groups, through links between HEIs and the new Lifelong Learning Partnerships which are being established.
8. Under this joint initiative, HEIs funded by the HEFCE are eligible to bid for funds via the HEFCE. FECs are eligible to bid for funds via the FEFC and will be contacted separately by them.
9. HEIs should view the HEFCE funding and the joint funding as parts of a single initiative. We encourage institutions to work together, and with other organisations in the region, to develop either a single, combined proposal for the region or a suite of collaborative proposals covering both elements. We will then consider proposals, and allocate funds, through a single process operated regionally.

   Action required

10. All HEIs should send initial statements of their plans for widening participation to Sharon Lane at the HEFCE to arrive no later than Friday 1 October 1999.
11. HEIs should also send their proposals for special initiative funding to Sharon Lane by the same deadline.
12. We will announce the outcome of the bidding process in November 1999.

    Background

13. HEFCE 99/24 outlined the policy and funding decisions which have been made on widening participation in higher education following the responses to our consultation paper (HEFCE 98/39). Our Equal Opportunities, Access and Lifelong Learning Committee (EQUALL) considered the key issues which emerged from the responses, and its advice informed the decisions described. As a result of this process, from 1999-2000 we are introducing a combination of funding approaches to widening participation, through the mainstream teaching funding method, the allocation of additional student numbers, and special funding initiatives.
14. In return, we are requesting initial statements from higher education institutions of their strategies for widening participation, which we will then monitor through the annual operating statements which we ask them to provide. HEFCE 99/30 set out our requirements for annual operating statements to be submitted by 23 July 1999. It made clear that formal monitoring against institutions’ initial statements on widening participation would be introduced next year.
15. In anticipation of our longer-term strategy, in 1998-99 we allocated £1.5 million to 25 regional partnership projects as the first stage of our special funding programme (see HEFCE 99/07). When we launched this initiative we hoped that additional funds would become available over the three-year period from 1999-2000 to 2001-02. Many of the responses to our consultation on funding for widening participation argued that a larger amount was required to support institutional development and partnership activity, particularly where expertise needed to be developed. Therefore we have established a special funding programme which totals £7.5 million for 1999-2000 and £7 million a year for the following two years. This is in addition to the £20 million for widening participation which we are allocating on a formula basis for 1999-2000 to all HEFCE-funded HEIs and FECs, by reference to the proportion of their students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
16. In 1998-99 we also allocated £0.5 million to a suite of national projects to help disseminate and embed good practice in widening participation. For example, to support the promotion of women into science, engineering and technology through the Commission on University Career Opportunities (CUCO) Athena Project; and to help HEIs to work with schools in partnership with the DfEE-funded Education Action Zones. In 1999-2000 we will continue to work in partnership with national bodies and intend to allocate a further £0.5 million to fund similar projects. This funding is not subject to the application process described in this document and is not included in the figures below.
17. In addition, we have established a joint fund with the FEFC. This focuses on supporting progression from further to higher education, building on the work of Lifelong Learning Partnerships. Further education colleges will also receive details from the FEFC and should apply to them for funding under this initiative. The total available under this strand is £4 million, provided equally by the two Councils. The £2 million from the HEFCE is included within the £7.5 million total of HEFCE special funding for widening participation projects.
18. In addition to the programmes described in this document, we are making £2 million per year available for support for disabled students, and specifically to support their access to and participation in higher education. An invitation to bid for those funds has already been circulated in HEFCE 99/08. We will also be administering, on behalf of the DfEE, a special Millennium Summer Schools programme to start in the summer of 2000. Details of that scheme, which will be targeted on a limited number of institutions, will be circulated separately.

    Initial statements on strategies for widening participation

19. The Dearing Committee emphasised the importance of institutional strategies for widening participation, stressing the need for institutions' governing bodies to monitor and review achievements. In its response to the Dearing Report, the Government agreed that institutions should review their strategies, and publish outcomes of the review and how their access and participation strategies have been implemented.
20. In 1998, we consulted HEIs on changes to their corporate plans and how we use these plans (HEFCE 98/13). We propose to introduce a three-year cycle for corporate plans, focusing on high level strategic aims. We indicated that, in the course of the three-year cycle we would request additional specific policy strategies to inform our policy development and funding initiatives. We propose that this should include institutions' participation strategies, the development and improvement of which will become a feature of our funding programme.
21. In HEFCE 98/39, we sought comments on our proposals to link funding to institutions’ strategies for widening participation. These proposals received widespread support. In particular, there was strong support for our proposal that institutions should generate their own targets in line with their own missions, rather than the HEFCE setting sector-wide targets.
22. The Performance Indicators Steering Group has recently published its first report (HEFCE 99/11). In this, it identified a range of indicators which can measure the extent to which institutions recruit both young and mature students from disadvantaged or under-represented groups, and the extent to which they retain students. It is important that institutions devise strategies both to recruit such students and to support them in completing their qualification. The strategies they devise will vary according to the institution’s character and mission and the particular groups they may wish to target.
23. Institutions have recently received, in their March grant letter, indications of the additional, formula-based funding which they will receive in 1999-2000 to assist in widening participation and in the retention of students. We have also allocated additional student places to many institutions partly in order to widen participation. In their initial statements, we are asking institutions to indicate how they will make use of this additional formula-calculated funding and the student numbers.

    Aims

24. We seek initial statements from all HEIs on their strategies to widen participation from groups under-represented in HE. We give generic guidance on the content in paragraph 26 below.
25. Participation strategies will vary according to the mission, ethos and wider strategy of an institution. We intend to support diversity rather than prescribing any particular set of approaches or strategies for widening participation.
26. Institutions bidding for special programme funds and additional student numbers for widening participation will be asked to place these bids within the context of their corporate plan and participation strategies.

    Generic guidance

27. Institutions' initial statements of their participation strategies might cover the following:
    1. Aims and objectives relating to widening participation, and mechanisms for achieving these.
    2. A summary of how the objectives for widening participation relate to the institution’s corporate strategy and financial plan, and to other related strategies - for example, for learning and teaching.
    3. A profile of the present and potential student population of the institution, drawing on the institution’s performance indicators in this area.
    4. Identification of under-represented groups, with targets for improving their participation.
    5. Summary of approaches to improving student retention with associated targets, particularly for non-traditional students.
    6. The indicators the institution will use to monitor progress. These should preferably be quantified; but if not, must be amenable to objective assessment of whether or not the goals have been achieved.
    7. Identification of key partners and collaborative relationships related to the implementation of the strategy.
28. As a guideline, we are not looking for statements to be longer than five pages.

    Monitoring arrangements

29. We are seeking initial statements by the start of October 1999. We will then monitor institutions’ success in achieving the targets set in these statements through the annual operating statements received from institutions in July 2000 and subsequently.

    Timetable for submission

30. Institutions should send their initial statements to Sharon Lane, HEFCE, Northavon House, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QD to arrive no later than Friday 1 October 1999. If statements are in hard copy, we should be grateful to receive six copies of each statement. We will accept proposals by facsimile or e-mail, again addressed to Sharon Lane: fax 0117 931 7226 or e-mail s.lane@hefce.ac.uk. If using e-mail, the format used should be one of the following: .TXT, .RTF, Word 97 or earlier, or WordPerfect 5.1 or earlier.

    The special funding programme

    Aims

31. Our aims in this special funding programme are:
    1. To build on the work already funded in 1998-99, and to develop new partnership projects which could not be supported then. As a broad guideline, we expect to allocate around £3 million per year to support this aspect of the initiative, but that will depend on the quality of the bids.
    2. To support institutions in disseminating and embedding good practice in widening participation. Again, as a broad guideline and depending on the quality of the bids, we expect to allocate around £2 million per year to support this aspect.
    3. To develop progression opportunities from further to higher education by building links between HEIs and the emerging Lifelong Learning Partnerships. We have allocated £4 million to this programme, funded jointly by the FEFC and ourselves initially for one year, though we anticipate that the programme will continue for two more years. We will seek to allocate the funds roughly equally between projects led by HEIs and those with FECs as lead bodies, subject to the merit of the proposals.
32. In 1999-2000, we have allocated a total of £7 million to this set of initiatives, with an additional £2 million being allocated from the FEFC. In the following two years, the same level of HEFCE funding will be available (that is, £7 million), but we cannot at this stage confirm continuation of the FEFC’s £2 million.

    Distribution of funds

33. We have distributed these funds among the nine regions according to need. As in 1998-99, we have measured need by the number of young people from poor neighbourhoods in each region who do not enter higher education. As previously however, the initiative is aimed at all age groups and not only young people. The distribution of funds is shown in Table I.

    Table I Distribution of special initiative funds in 1999-2000

    Region	Strand
    	HEFCE programme to build partnerships and to disseminate and embed good practice	Joint FEFC/HEFCE programme
    	£000s per year	£000s
    North-East	571	457
    North-West and Merseyside	962	770
    Yorkshire and the Humber	719	575
    East Midlands	398	319
    West Midlands	712	569
    South-West	315	252
    Eastern	305	244
    London	644	515
    South-East	374	299
    Total	5000	4000

    National criteria

34. Each special funding proposal will need to satisfy the following national criteria. These are threshold criteria, necessary but not sufficient for the success of a proposal.

    Meet a clear need

35. Institutions should demonstrate that a need exists in the region or locally and show how their proposal will help to meet it. They should specify the outcomes that they will measure to assess the effectiveness of the project in meeting need.

    Have a direct impact

36. We are seeking primarily to fund activities that will have a direct impact on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Proposals to disseminate and embed good practice may target a wider range of under-represented groups, but should equally have a direct impact.

    Promote longer-term commitment to widening participation

37. Proposals should show how the funding sought will promote longer-term commitment to widening participation after the funding ceases.

    Develop synergy with other funding sources and partnerships

38. Institutions should identify other relevant funding sources and partnerships in the area, and state how their proposal links to and builds upon these networks, particularly for all the projects funded under the joint FEFC/HEFCE element.

    Transferability of results

39. Proposals will be judged on the extent to which they seek to develop and disseminate good practice.

    Support for students

40. Institutions should identify the mechanisms they will use to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds once recruited, so that such students successfully complete their programmes. Proposals will need to indicate the connection with teaching and learning strategies designed to meet the needs of those from disadvantaged groups.

    Value for money

41. The proposals will need to show the value added by the activities.

    Quality assurance, monitoring and self-evaluation

42. In their proposals, institutions should describe how they would assure the quality of the provision they develop, monitor their own performance, and evaluate their own progress. In all cases, we shall look for quantified and measurable outcomes with realistic timescales, and these will be used as an indication of the success of the activity.

    Regional priorities

43. In addition to national threshold criteria, each proposal to develop partnerships will need to address regional priorities. These priorities may differ from region to region. We set regional priorities last year following the regional seminars, and we will confirm them again to institutions following the seminars for HEIs we are holding in the last two weeks of May. We will also be holding seminars for FECs in June, which will consider this funding initiative among other issues.
44. Proposals to disseminate and embed good practice may address the regional priorities but may wish to go outside these and focus on the national priorities. Such proposals must make clear which priorities are being addressed and through what mechanisms.

    Activities to be supported

45. We do not seek to prescribe the nature of the activity to be supported, either in the development of partnerships or in the dissemination and embedding of good practice. But the following are illustrations of activities eligible for support:
    1. The development of summer schools designed to introduce potential students from disadvantaged groups to HE, or to assist progression.
    2. The maintenance and enhancement of expertise in outreach activity.
    3. Activity to increase the participation of African-Caribbean men and Bangladeshi and Pakistani women.
    4. Staff development activities, including staff exchanges among the partners to promote the dissemination of good practice.
    5. Building local credit frameworks, possibly based on the Inter-Consortium Credit Agreement (InCCA) model, including credit rating of FE courses against HE credit frameworks where overlap exists.
    6. Mapping FE and HE curricula in specific areas to strengthen pathways, and reduce overlap and repetition.
    7. Access to technology designed to facilitate progression.
    8. Focused market research.
    9. Accreditation of work-based learning.
    10. Web site development to provide information about local opportunities for progression.
    11. Pre-entry and on-course guidance to ensure students make informed choices and to enhance retention rates.
    12. Programmes designed to support students once recruited to HE, such as mentoring schemes and programmes to develop key skills.
46. The type of activity that will be supported in disseminating and embedding good practice will vary widely according to the experience of the institution. Some institutions may seek to introduce and embed good practice developed elsewhere; others may seek to extend their own experience into new areas.

    Joint FEFC/HEFCE programme

47. This element of the overall initiative focuses on progression from FE to HE, and links with the work of Lifelong Learning Partnerships (LLPs).

    Lifelong Learning Partnerships

48. Plans to ensure that LLPs are in place across the country during 1999 were announced by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment in November 1998. These partnerships build on the earlier joint work of the FEFC, the TEC National Council, the Local Government Association and other partners to develop a National Partnership Protocol. LLPs will bring together all existing local partnership arrangements covering post-16 and lifelong learning. They will be responsible for co-ordinating local arrangements for learning, and the development of local learning targets linked to the new National Targets.
49. The Secretary of State wrote to partners in January 1999 asking LLPs to identify themselves against the criteria that had been defined in a remit document. The response has been encouraging, with all the likely partnership areas identified and many of the learning partnerships in place. Partnerships have recognised the importance of harnessing the strengths of all those with interests in lifelong learning, including higher education. It will also be important for relationships to develop with the Regional Development Agencies to tackle the skills agenda.
50. In many cases, LLPs have involved HEIs in their structures but there has been a limited focus on developing progression routes into HE. This element of the initiative is designed:
    1. To encourage HEIs to develop links and to work with LLPs in enhancing progression routes from further to higher education.
    2. To support activities designed to widen local access to and participation in higher education through the development of such links.

    Activities to be funded

51. Under this element, we will fund activities which are designed to build pathways/progression opportunities from further to higher education. It is up to institutions to identify the most appropriate activities to achieve this objective. They could include a number of the activities listed in paragraph 44 above. Proposals under this element must, however, identify how such activities will be targeted on building progression through work with LLPs.

    Application and approval process

52. HEIs are encouraged to submit combined proposals for funding under both the HEFCE element of the widening participation programme and the joint FEFC/HEFCE funded element.
53. Proposals should plan for a full three years of funding for their whole project but should specify clearly those parts designed to be funded under the joint FEFC/HEFCE element.
54. HEIs directly funded by the HEFCE are eligible to submit proposals to cover all or some of the following:
    1. On behalf of existing widening participation partnerships, to extend their work.
    2. On behalf of new partnerships which were not funded in 1998-99.
    3. To disseminate and embed good practice.
    4. To develop progression opportunities from further education to higher education under the joint FEFC/HEFCE initiative.
55. As last year, we hope that institutions and others will want to work in partnership. We will give priority to collaborative proposals: these may be a single joint proposal from institutions and other stakeholders in a region, or a suite of linked proposals.
56. There must be a lead HEI for all bids to the HEFCE to ensure clear lines of accountability for the use of funds. We would wish to see FECs and other organisations included in collaborative proposals led by an HEI.
57. For the joint FEFC/HEFCE element, applications will be considered from:
    1. One or more HEIs, preferably in partnership with one or more LLPs, bidding via the HEFCE, with one HEI acting as lead body.
    2. One or more FECs, as representatives of LLPs, with one or more HEIs, applying via the FEFC and with one FEC acting as lead body.
    3. Existing HEI-led partnerships to widen participation, applying via the HEFCE.
58. Proposals should be submitted using the form at Annex A and should include no more extra sheets than are specified on the form, except where an HEFCE regional consultant requests additional information. The form is available electronically at our web site (http:// www.hefce.ac.uk). If you cannot access the form via the web site, we will be happy to supply a copy on disk.
59. Institutions should send proposals to Sharon Lane, HEFCE, Northavon House, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QD to arrive no later than Friday 1 October 1999. If submitting hard copy, we should be grateful to receive six copies of each proposal. We will accept proposals by facsimile or e-mail, again addressed to Sharon Lane: fax 0117 931 7226 or e-mail s.lane@hefce.ac.uk. If using e-mail, the format used should be one of the following: .TXT, .RTF, Word 97 or earlier, or WordPerfect 5.1 or earlier.

    Assessment of applications

60. A single panel in each region will consider all applications and will be responsible for allocating all the funds covered by this document. Last year, the HEFCE regional consultants established Regional Advisory Networks (RANs), composed of key players involved in regional strategies for widening participation. Their membership is being reviewed to ensure that there is adequate representation.
61. The RANs will:
    1. Review the regional priorities established last year and, if they wish, make changes for consideration and agreement in the regional seminars for HEIs.
    2. Review progress in implementing the special funding projects approved for 1998-99, and take that progress into account in allocating further funds for 1999-2000 and beyond.
    3. Assess the proposals for funding under both the HEFCE and the joint HEFCE/FEFC initiatives.
    4. Seek to ensure that the funding under the joint FEFC/HEFCE element is allocated broadly equally between proposals with HEIs as lead bodies and those led by FECs. Their prime concern, however, will be the quality of applications, and they will not be constrained by the desire to achieve this balance.
    5. Where necessary, discuss the proposals with applicants and seek clarification or modification before the final allocation of funds.
    6. Submit their recommendations to a national panel, which will advise the HEFCE and FEFC Boards on the allocation of funds for 1999-2000 and indicative amounts for the following two years.
    7. Support and advise the HEFCE regional consultants and the FEFC regional directors in monitoring the projects.
62. The RANs will assess the proposals during October and may seek further information from applicants during that month. The HEFCE and FEFC Boards will decide the allocation of funds in early November.

    Announcement of the outcomes

63. We will announce the outcome of the bidding process as soon as possible after the Board meetings so that successful applicants can receive their first payment in January 2000. Institutions will have until 31 December 2000 to use the joint FEFC/HEFCE funds, and until 31 December 2002 to use the HEFCE funds.
64. HEFCE regional consultants and FEFC regional directors, in monitoring the projects that are funded, will require regular information on progress in relation to the targets and milestones. Annual monitoring will inform the decisions taken by the RANs in recommending continuing funding for the two further years of the programme.
65. The HEFCE will monitor the effectiveness of the whole special initiative and will seek to encourage the dissemination of good practice.

Annex A

Application form

(You can access an electronic version of this document, including this form, through the HEFCE web site at http://www.hefce.ac.uk under ‘Publications’)

Proposal for funding for widening participation special funding programme 1999-2000 to 2001-02

Please complete a form for each application. They should be sent to Sharon Lane, HEFCE, Northavon House, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QD to arrive no later than Friday 1 October 1999. If submitting hard copy, we should be grateful to receive six copies of each proposal. We will accept proposals by facsimile or e-mail, again addressed to Sharon Lane: fax 0117 931 7226 or e-mail s.lane@hefce.ac.uk. If using e-mail, the format used should be one of the following: .TXT, .RTF, Word 97 or earlier, or WordPerfect 5.1 or earlier.

Lead institution

Full address

Title of proposal

Contact

Telephone number

e-mail address

Section A

1. Partnership details

    

    

    

    

    

2. Amount of funding applied for: £

   (If your application is a combined proposal for funding under both the HEFCE programme and the joint FEFC/HEFCE funded programme, please indicate the amount within your total proposal which is relevant to the FEFC/HEFCE element.)

   Section B

3. Main aims and outcomes of proposal

   (Please limit your description to a maximum of one side of A4 paper)

    

    

    

4. Provisional action plan and timetable, excluding expenditure profile

   (Please limit this to a maximum of six sides of A4 paper)

    

    

5. Expenditure profile

   (If submitting a proposal for funding for three years, please show a yearly expenditure profile)

    

    

   Section C

6. Signature of head of institution (or representative)……………………………………………….

    

   Name and position……………………………………………

    

    

   Date………………………….