Consultation 00/50

Funding for widening participation in higher education: new proposals 2000-01 to 2003-04

Outcomes of consultation (May 2001)

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Report

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Annexes

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Annex A: Opportunity Bursaries Guidance plus

• Appendix 1 List of LEAs
• Appendix 2 Education Maintenance Allowances
• Appendix 3 Sample form for Opportunity Bursaries:
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Annex B: Opportunity Bursaries 2001-02: initial allocations for English HEIs
Annex C: Appropriate activities to widen participation
Annex D: The Excellence Challenge - on-line at the DfEE

Contents

Executive summary only

Purpose

1. This document sets out the HEFCE’s widening participation strategy. In Part 1, it presents proposals for, and invites comments on, new spending plans to build on local and national initiatives designed to raise the aspirations of under-represented groups to enter higher education (HE), to increase the numbers that progress onto HE courses, and to ensure that such students succeed.

2. On 14 September 2000 the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, David Blunkett, launched ‘The Excellence Challenge’ programme, which set out for consultation the Government’s proposed spending plans for widening the participation of young people in HE (see Annex D). This document discusses the implications of that programme in the context of our strategy and, in particular, the use of funds that we will allocate directly to higher education institutions (HEIs). Part 2 of this document invites institutions to consider how involvement in Excellence in Cities (EiC) areas can help to promote the Government’s and the HEFCE’s strategic approach to widening participation in the light of the new funds available.

Key points

3. We propose a strategy to enhance and extend our current activities to widen participation and to facilitate institutions’ engagement in the Government’s ‘Excellence Challenge’ programme. The Council’s aims, and the Government’s, are:

• to encourage institutions to widen participation in higher education by under-represented groups
• to raise the aspirations of all to attend the institution that is best able to match their abilities, interests and needs
• to ensure that all students have the best possible chance of succeeding in their studies.

4. Taking together the funding made available to both students and institutions, over £160 million a year is currently provided for measures aimed at improving access and widening participation. The proposals described below will add up to £29 million a year until 2003-04, resulting in a total of up to £189 million a year directed at widening participation during this period.

5. We recognise that institutions have diverse approaches to widening participation. We wish to encourage institutions to build on their strong track records in this area, and to adopt and embed the good practice that has been widely disseminated. We expect institutions to submit new and fully developed strategic statements and to set new associated improvement targets (both process and outcome) for all their HEFCE-funded widening participation activities. ‘The Excellence Challenge’ contains examples of activities which represent good practice in widening participation, of which the HEFCE and the Government would like to see more widespread use. We would encourage institutions to include such activities in their new strategic statements. These statements and associated targets will be agreed with us before approval for funding is confirmed. Institutions should monitor and report on performance against these targets through their annual operating statements.

6. We propose a combination of approaches to distribute the additional funds provided for the Excellence Challenge – to support both institutional activities to widen participation and increase access, and for the allocation of Opportunity Bursaries:

1. For 2000-01 we have provided £25 million to institutions in direct proportion to their success in recruiting students from low-participation areas. This funding is intended to recognise both the success of institutions in recruiting disadvantaged students and the extra cost of enabling them to succeed. We propose to increase the amount allocated in this way by a further £6 million a year, for institutions to adopt and embed appropriate activities as set out in ‘The Excellence Challenge’ (and summarised in Annex C below) and, where appropriate, to work with EiC partnerships in the local area. Evidence that such activities would be undertaken and embedded should be included in institutions’ fully developed strategic statements.
2. We propose to allocate funds to support appropriate outreach work to raise the aspirations of state educated pupils, primarily in EiC areas, to attend the institution from which they will derive the maximum benefit. This funding would be provided to institutions with an intake of less than 80 per cent from state schools and further education colleges. Those already involved in EiC partnerships would be expected to build on these links, and those institutions currently outside EiC partnerships to forge local and/or national links, primarily to target students living in phase 1 and 2 EiC areas and to undertake joint planning with school and further education partners. Eligible institutions would be expected to provide an increasing element of their own funding to support such activities. Their fully developed strategic statements should include evidence of that matched funding, and evidence that the activities would be embedded and continued beyond the three year funding cycle. We propose to spend £6 million a year on funding these outreach activities.
3. We propose to spend £4 million in 2000-01 to support HE summer schools. Beyond 2000-01 this programme depends on further funds being provided by the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), although it is expected to continue.
4. Every institution with full-time undergraduates will be allocated Opportunity Bursaries to a maximum value of £34 million (approximately £6 million in 2001-02, £11 million in 2002-03 and £17 million in 2003-04). The primary target for Opportunity Bursaries will be eligible students living in phase 1 and 2 EiC areas. Therefore institutions already involved in EiC partnerships will be expected to build on these; institutions currently outside EiC partnerships will be expected to forge local and/or national links.
5. From 2000-01 we will provide institutions with 2.5 per cent of the total Hardship, Fee Waiver and Opportunity Bursary funds allocated each year, to support the promotion and administration of these funds. In 2000-01 the DfEE has also provided funds to support the administration of the Mature Bursaries scheme.

Action required

7. Respondents are asked to comment on the organisation of the new Excellence in Cities partnerships by 24 November 2000, to inform the DfEE’s forthcoming guidance on the management of the scheme. Where possible, institutions should provide details of existing or forthcoming links with EiC areas in which they are or will be involved. The deadline for comments on other aspects of the proposals is 5 January 2001.