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15 November 2007 HEFCE logo
To  Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions
Heads of HEFCE-funded further education colleges
Heads of universities in Northern Ireland
Direct Line 0117 931 7300
Direct Fax 0117 931 7203

Circular letter number 31/2007

For further information contact Katie Germer, tel. 0117 931 7386, e-mail k.germer@hefce.ac.uk

Dear Vice-Chancellor or Principal

Review of HEFCE policy as it relates to disabled students

1.   This letter outlines our upcoming review of HEFCE guidance and policy to support disabled students. No action is required in response.

2.   We last produced guidance for the sector on supporting disabled students in 1999 in 'Guidance on base-level provision for disabled students in higher education institutions', HEFCE 99/04. We now wish to review our policy as it relates to disabled students, including our current funding method for the mainstream disability allocation. The review will enable us to update the guidance as necessary to take account of the progress the sector has made in meeting the needs of disabled students.

Background to HEFCE's support for disabled students

3.   HEFCE is committed to ensuring that all those with the potential to benefit from higher education (HE) have the opportunity to do so, whatever their background and whenever they need it. As part of this commitment, we have been funding initiatives aimed at improving access and progression of disabled students since 1993. Between 1993 and 1999 we supported special disability funding programmes that had the broad aim of widening the participation of students with disabilities in HE. Over 100 projects worth £12 million were funded through these programmes, and significant gains were made by the sector for students with disabilities. Two further specialist funding programmes between 1999 and 2005, totalling over £11 million, supported a range of projects designed to ensure that provision for disabled students was consistent across the sector. During this time, the National Disability Team (NDT) provided hands-on support and advice both to funded projects and to institutions generally.

4.   From 2000-01, we introduced a disability premium in our mainstream teaching funding method. This provides institutions with additional funds, on a recurrent basis, to recognise that additional costs are incurred in recruiting and supporting students with disabilities. Our overall disability funding allocation for the sector has increased from £7 million when it was introduced in 2000-01, to £13 million in 2007-08.

5.   We have also helped higher education institutions to invest in their physical infrastructure and to make anticipatory adjustments to ensure that disabled students and staff can access their facilities. In May 2003, we invited institutions to bid for round 3 project capital funding. Of the £494 million that was subsequently allocated to improve capital and IT infrastructure to support learning and teaching, £117 million was allocated to improve provision for disabled students.

6.   From January 2006, support to the sector on disability issues has been provided by the Higher Education Academy, Equality Challenge Unit, and Action on Access. These three organisations collaborate to form the Disability Equality Partnership (DEP).

7.   While HEFCE 99/04 is still useful and relevant today, we are keen to provide more up to date guidance that reflects issues currently facing institutions and progress the sector has already made. We wish to move away from 'minimum compliance' towards the spirit of 'positive promotion', as underpinned by the amendment to the Disability Discrimination Act in 2005.

Policy review

8.   We and the sector are moving forward with the implementation of our respective disability equality schemes, and are required to assess the impact of our activities. We believe, therefore, that a thorough review of our policy as it relates to disabled students is timely.

9.   We envisage that the review will comprise:

  1. Commissioned research to establish what the sector is doing currently to meet the needs of disabled students and progress made since the publication of HEFCE 99/04.
  2. An evaluation of the DEP (see paragraph 11).
  3. A review of our funding method to ensure that, in light of the increases in student numbers claiming the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA), and the changes in legislation, our current methodology remains fit for purpose.

Research

10.   We wish to commission research which will establish existing levels of support for disabled students in the sector and how these vary across institutions. We anticipate that the research will deliver the following:

  1. A historical review of the impact of changes to legislation and funding arrangements for the HE sector since the publication of HEFCE 99/04.
  2. A review of research undertaken to date regarding disabled students in HE, to include an assessment of the robustness and reliability of published data.
  3. Evidence from case study institutions; these will provide us with up-to-date information on the policies and practices being adopted by institutions as well as data collection issues that institutions face.

Evaluation of the DEP

11.   We intend to commission an independent evaluation of the DEP to ascertain how well the three organisations are meeting the aims and objectives of the partnership. The evaluation would be formative, to help us - should it prove necessary - improve both the practice of the DEP for the rest of its contract and develop further our policy for disabled students post-2008.

12.   Invitations to tender for both the research and the DEP evaluation will be issued in November 2007.

Funding method for the disability allocation

13.   The current funding method was agreed in 1999 and addressed four key concerns about data collection and coverage. These were:

  1. DSA was only available to full-time undergraduates, so any methodology needed to include assumptions that encompassed part-time and postgraduate students.
  2. DSA used tight eligibility criteria which meant that, in practice, only a proportion of an institution's disabled students received it.
  3. There was no requirement for a student to declare receipt of the DSA to their institution, which might have limited completeness of the data.
  4. We did not have data on HE students in further education (FE) colleges in receipt of DSA.

14.   Circumstances which gave rise to these concerns have changed, as follows:

  1. DSA has been extended to part-time and postgraduate students.
  2. The main groups that may not meet the eligibility criteria are now mostly restricted to:
    • part-time students who study for less than 0.5 of a full-time equivalent
    • students on sandwich course placement years where the periods of study last for less than 10 weeks
    • non-UK domiciled students and postgraduate students whose major source of funding is not a Research Council.
  3. Although students are still under no compulsion to declare receipt of the DSA to their institution, we are aware, anecdotally, that many institutions have arrangements to receive this information directly from the local authority.
  4. We now have disability data on HE students in FE colleges through the individualised learner record.

15.   In addition, reported numbers of students in receipt of the DSA have doubled since 2001-02, to 4 per cent of the full-time undergraduate population in 2005-06. This may be due to better data collection, rather than a growth in the number of students receiving the DSA.

16.   In light of the improvement in data collection, the expanded eligibility criteria for the DSA, and the overall increase in numbers of students claiming the allowance, it is timely to review our funding method to ensure that it is still fit for purpose.

17.   Initially we will undertake modelling to determine the effectiveness of alternative methods. If this work demonstrates that significant changes are needed, we will develop detailed proposals to put to the sector for consultation.

Yours sincerely

John Selby
Director, Widening Participation