April 2006/13
Guide

 

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HEFCE strategic plan 2006-11

An updated version of the plan was published in June 2009.

This strategic plan sets out a widely shared vision for the development of higher education in England over the next five years, and HEFCE’s strategy for moving towards it. It has been developed through extensive consultation and discussion with a wide range of stakeholders.

Foreword and introduction (read online)

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Foreword by David Young
Chairman

Higher education in this country is world class. It is an indispensable part of our competitive knowledge-based economy and a major force for securing a democratic, civilised and inclusive society. In developing our strategic plan for the future direction of higher education, we have taken this wide and pivotal role that universities and colleges play as our starting point. We have also tried to recognise the wide range of stakeholders who have increasingly demanding needs.

We set out to ensure that our strategic plan for the next five years is based on a widely shared vision. The plan is the result of extensive stakeholder engagement. We have benefited greatly from the many responses that have come from those groups and organisations with an interest in higher education, as well as universities and colleges themselves in both the early and later stages of consultation .

Charting a course among different and sometimes competing interests presents a tough challenge. Our focus has been on the quality of the student experience, social inclusion, sustaining world-class research, and supporting the wider roles of universities and colleges within the economy and society. Uppermost in our mind is the need to maintain institutional autonomy and identify policies and funding methods which are not burdensome, but which will help to secure the long term sustainability, vitality and excellence of higher education. We believe that this plan, enriched by the input of many contributors and partners, provides a map to get us there.

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Introduction by Steve Egan
Acting Chief Executive

Our approach in the five years covered by this strategic plan will be to build on the many strengths of a sector that is already diverse and dynamic, while identifying and responding to the social, economic and environmental challenges that we need to face together.

There is common agreement across the HE sector that we need a period of stability of public funding as we adjust to the new fee arrangements for full-time undergraduates. Students as fee payers are likely to become more demanding, and their interests and the quality of their learning experience are at the heart of our plans. Meeting their increasingly diverse needs will require a much closer engagement with employers and other partners. We will ensure that our funding method for learning and teaching provides stability for the sector, supports innovative, flexible provision, and has the capacity to cope with more significant change if required following the independent review of the HE funding reforms in 2009.

We remain committed to fully funded growth in student numbers. We see this as essential if we are to meet the challenge of widening access, and increasing participation and student progression, which all remain crucial to our mission. We continue to see the drive towards widening participation as fundamental in promoting social inclusion and improving the country's economic competitiveness.

A key feature of the next five years will be maintaining a dynamic, world-class research sector which will underpin economic prosperity and national well-being. We will work with Government, the Research Councils and other funders to ensure that the UK's record in creating new knowledge and opening up new fields of research is matched by achievements in their application.

The Government's framework for science and innovation highlights the important role that the higher education knowledge base plays as a source of the country's global competitiveness. Long-term funding to promote engagement between HEIs and businesses will be crucial in creating ideas and nurturing enterprise, as well as enhancing skills, management capability and productivity. We aim to work with many national and regional stakeholders to unlock this potential still further. We also want to focus on the role of higher education in society more broadly, and will develop a strategy on the social dimension to activities to enhance the contribution that HEIs make to their localities and regions.

We aim to achieve all of this while continuing to reduce bureaucracy. We will take an increasingly risk-based approach to ensuring that the public funds we distribute are well spent, relying more on well led, governed and managed institutions' own accountability processes.

At the global level our strategy will be to support the HE sector's reputation for excellence. At the national level we will aim to ensure that the sector retains the capacity to meet national needs, while building on the strengths and diversity of autonomous universities and colleges. There will be significant challenges at the regional level where we will work more closely with partners to address under-provision, skills development needs and economic regeneration.

As we go forward with this plan we will continue to work strategically and in partnership. As part of this we will make further use of the very helpful responses we received to the consultation.