Tuition Fees: 1998 99 to 2013 14 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 Additional fee income Basic fee 3,000 2,000 1,000 0
Student loan system No one has to pay fees upfront. The government provides loans to cover the full cost of tuition fees. Loan repayments are linked to income. You only make repayments when your income is over 21,000 a year. If your income drops below this amount repayments stop. And if you never earn above this amount then you do not pay anything back. The loan is wiped thirty years after you graduate. Whatever you borrow, regardless of what you ve repaid, in the April thirty years after you graduate/leave university the loan is wiped.
Financial support for low income students Tuition fee loan Maintenance loan to help with living costs Maintenance grant of up to 3,250 (full time students only) National Scholarship Programme (first year only) Other awards depending on circumstances Access to Learning Fund From Government Universities and colleges also offer bursaries and scholarships fee waivers in kind support From universities/colleges
What is fair access? Removing barriers Distribution across all universities and colleges Different institutions face different issues
OFFA s role To promote and safeguard fair access to higher education for people from lower income backgrounds and other underrepresented groups. The main way we do this is by approving and regulating access agreements.
Under represented groups OFFA s remit is to safeguard access to education for under represented groups. These are: people from lower income backgrounds lower socio economic groups students from neighbourhoods in which relatively few people enter higher education some ethnic groups or sub groups people who have been in care disabled people.
How access agreements work All English universities and colleges that want to charge higher fees must have an access agreement with us. Access agreement is subject to OFFA approval. Sets out how the institution will ensure that people from under represented groups are not discouraged from applying. Monitored annually.
How do we assess an access agreement? How high are the fees? How much are they investing in access? How is that spend allocated outreach, retention, financial support? Is the financial support for students clear? What are the targets are they stretching?
How we monitor institutions progress against their commitments Formal monitoring return after each academic year (joint process with HEFCE) Continuous dialogue with institutions What if they make less progress than expected?
Progress The sector as a whole has succeeded in widening participation since the mid 2000s.
Trends in young participation for the most disadvantaged areas determined by HE participation rates (POLAR2 classification) Source: HEFCE publication 2010/03, Trends in young participation in higher education: core results for England, Figure 3
Trends in young participation for areas classified by HE participation rates (POLAR2 classification) Source: HEFCE publication 2010/03, Trends in young participation in higher education: core results for England, Figure 2
Access to the most selective universities The most advantaged young people are six to nine times more likely than the most disadvantaged young people to go to one of the universities with the highest entry requirements. Source: Ucas, December 2012, 2012 application cycle: end of year report
What are universities doing? Access measures included in access agreements include: outreach financial support student success (retention, attainment, employability).
Estimated access agreement expenditure (including Government NSP allocation) by 2016 17: by type of spend, HEIs and FECs Retention 12% Outreach 14% Bursaries and inkind support 37% Student choice 7% Fee waivers 30% Total: 809.5 million
Outreach Raises aspirations higher education is for people like me Includes accurate info on finance and subject choices University of Nottingham Starts early before key decisions are made Oxford Brookes University Keeps going
Student success Retention: staying and completing the course Attainment: reaching full potential Employability: preparing for work
Financial support Universities and colleges total investment in 2012 13: 442.2 million This comprises: 93.7 million on fee waivers 340.7 million on bursaries and scholarships 7.8 million on student choice support.
Estimated fees and costs for new entrants in 2012 13 and 2013 14: HEIs and FECs* 8,750 8,500 8,250 8,507 8,414 8,263 8,156 8,000 7,750 7,500 7,898 7,803 2012 13 2013 14 7,250 7,000 Average fee Average fee after fee waivers Average cost after financial support * Figures include those without access agreements
Estimated access agreement expenditure including Government NSP allocation 2011 12 to 2016 17: HEIs and FECs 900 800 700 Total Expenditure ( m) 600 500 400 300 200 100 Retention Outreach Financial 0 2011 12 2012 13 2013 14 2014 15 2015 16 2016 17
2012 onwards: the new landscape 2006 changes did not deter people from going to university; will this be true for 2012 onwards? Multiple factors affect choice of whether/where to go to university not all under universities control Considerable diversity in fee levels and financial support What works?
WASRS archive www.heacademy.ac.uk/retention archives
Diverse students = diverse issues
Shared responsibility Universities Colleges Schools/teachers Parents Employers and collaboration between institutions.
Partnership in access agreements Collaborative schemes Collaborative targets Collaborative evaluation
The whole point of this work and this investment is to identify and realise human potential. Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science, HEFCE 2012 annual conference