Tuition Fees: to

(1)

(2)

Tuition Fees: 1998‐99 to 2013‐14 £0 £1,000 £2,000 £3,000 £4,000 £5,000 £6,000 £7,000 £8,000 £9,000 Additional fee income Basic fee

(3)

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.

(4)

• 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 • Universities and colleges also offer – bursaries and scholarships – fee waivers – in‐kind support Financial support for low‐income students From Government From universities/colleges

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What is fair access?

Removing barriers

Distribution across all

universities and

colleges

Different institutions

face different issues

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OFFA’s role

To promote and safeguard

fair access to higher

education for people from

lower income backgrounds

and other under‐

represented groups.

The main way we do this is by approving and regulating access agreements.

(7)

‘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.

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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.

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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?}

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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?

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Progress

The sector as a whole has

succeeded in widening

participation since the

mid‐2000s.

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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:

(13)

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:

(14)

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

(15)

What are universities doing?

Access measures included in

access agreements include:

• _outreach

• _{financial support}

• _{student success (retention,}

attainment, employability).

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Estimated access agreement expenditure (including Government NSP allocation) by 2016‐17: by type of spend, HEIs and FECs Bursaries and in‐ kind support 37% Fee waivers 30% Student choice 7% Outreach 14% Retention 12% Total: £809.5 million

(17)

Outreach

• Raises aspirations – higher education is for ‘people like me’ • Includes accurate info on finance and subject choices • Starts early – before key decisions are made • Keeps going ©Oxford Brookes University ©University of Nottingham

(18)

Student success

• Retention: staying and

completing the course

• _{Attainment: reaching}

full potential

• _{Employability:}

preparing for work

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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.

(20)

Estimated fees and costs for new entrants in 2012‐13 and 2013‐14: HEIs and FECs* * Figures include those without access agreements £8,414 £8,156 £7,803 £8,507 £8,263 £7,898 £7,000 £7,250 £7,500 £7,750 £8,000 £8,250 £8,500 £8,750 Average fee Average fee after fee waivers Average cost after financial support 2012‐13 2013‐14

(21)

Estimated access agreement expenditure including Government NSP allocation 2011‐12 to 2016‐17: HEIs and FECs £0 £100 £200 £300 £400 £500 £600 £700 £800 £900 2011‐12 2012‐13 2013‐14 2014‐15 2015‐16 2016‐17 To ta l E xpe ndi tur e (£ m ) Retention Outreach Financial

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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?

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WASRS archive

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Shared responsibility

• Universities • Colleges • Schools/teachers • Parents • Employers …and collaboration between institutions.

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Partnership in access agreements

• _{Collaborative schemes}

• Collaborative targets

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“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