April 2003/18
Special initiative
Invitation to apply for funds

Applications should be submitted by Monday 30 June 2003

Aimhigher: P4P summer schools

Invitation to apply for European Social Fund grants for 2003-06

This document invites lead partners funded under the Aimhigher: Partnerships for Progression initiative to apply for European Social Fund grants to support higher education summer schools. It follows consultation with the sector (HEFCE 2002/50). It is expected that funds will flow from October 2003 for summer schools held in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Executive summary (read on-line)

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Report
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Annex A Summary of consultation responses
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Annex B Application form
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Executive summary

Purpose

1. In November 2002 we sought views on whether the Council should apply for European Social Fund (ESF) money for 2003 to 2006, on behalf of the English higher education sector (HEFCE 2002/50). This document reports on the responses to the consultation, and invites Aimhigher: Partnerships for Progression (Aimhigher: P4P) partnerships to apply for ESF funding to support higher education summer schools.

Key points

2. Most respondents to the consultation believed that there was an overall benefit in accessing ESF to support widening participation strategies and Aimhigher: P4P. Taking into account non-respondents, this represents support from 40 per cent of the HE sector.

3. We have the opportunity to apply for up to £13.5 million under ESF Objective 3, Measure 3, Priority 1 - Lifelong learning. We believe that this fits well with summer schools, which were the most popular activity proposed in the consultation responses. We are therefore inviting applications from Aimhigher: P4P partnerships to use ESF funding to match HEFCE funding for regional summer schools activities. We will not accept applications from individual institutions, but only from lead Aimhigher: P4P regional planners.

4. We will check all applications to ensure that they are eligible, and will then put forward an amalgamated bid on behalf of the sector to the ESF Division in July 2003. We do not expect this process to be competitive. However, if applications do exceed the amount of ESF funds available we will take forward applications from each of the regions in approximate proportion to the total amount of Aimhigher: P4P funding they will receive in 2003-04. If our application is successful, funds will flow from October 2003 for summer schools held in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

5. At this stage, we are not inviting proposals to carry out any other kind of widening participation activity using ESF funding. However, we are providing additional funds to Aimhigher: P4P to undertake national activity (see HEFCE 2003/14). We will keep under review whether this could match ESF funds, as we may have the opportunity to apply for further ESF funds under Objective 3, Priority 2, Measure 2.

Action required

6. Applications from partnerships, using the form at Annex B, should be sent to Matthew King at HEFCE, by Monday 30 June 2003.