APPENDIX 2
Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Department for Education and Employment (PAC 00-01/126)
Question 93: A comparison of funding for sixth
forms provision in schools compared with sixth form colleges
Unit funding
The starting point in trying to compare school
and FE funding is the per capita data the Department has published
on the level of funding allocated for 16-18 students by (i) the
Further Education Funding Council and (ii) LEAs.
For FE, table 4.7 of the Department Report for
2001 shows that the rate of funding per full-time equivalent (FTE)
student in the FE sector is planned to be £3,280. On the
basis of earlier advice from the FEFC we would also take this
as our estimate of the funding cost of a 16-18 FE student, again
on an FTE basis.
For schools, figures for LEAs were published
in the Department's school sixth form funding consultation document
in December 2000. This showed that the LEA mean funding cost per
pupil in school sixth forms for the year 2000-01 was £3,250.
Put side by side, these figures could suggest
that the DFE and LEA average unit funding figures are broadly
equal. However, I would counsel caution on this. It is difficult
to compare school and FE figures because their definitions are
not equivalent. In particular, some costs borne by FE colleges
are met by LEAs in the case of schools. Also, schools can cross-subsidise
between 11-16 and 16 plus provision—a freedom they will
retain under the ISC arrangements from next year.
A further complication comes in the use of averages.
The FE average are fairly meaningful because the FEFC ran a system
based on national rates, as the Learning and Skills Council is
doing. However on the schools side, the LEA mean figure of £3,250
masks a very wide range from £2,600 to £4,100. Schools
at the lower end of this range are likely to be funded well below
comparable levels at, say, a sixth form FE college with the same
types of students undertaking the same types of programme. Such
schools can, however, look forward to levelling up to LSC national
rates as resources allow.
ACHIEVING 3 A-LEVELS
IN SCHOOLS
AND COLLEGES—FUNDING
PER STUDENT
The only other figures the Department has published
which bear on sector comparisons came as part of our analysis
of the funding allocated to the different types of institution
listed below, over two years, in order to help a student successfully
achieve three A levels. The latest year for which data are available
is 1996-97. The figures take account of the costs associated with
those students who drop-out or fail to achieve the full three
A-levels. They are subject to the same caveats as above in terms
of the difficulty of comparing like with like:
| Sector | Funding (£)
| Index (i) = 100 |
| (i) LEA maintained schools | 7,380
| 100 |
| (ii) General FE colleges | 6,250
| 85 |
| (iii) Sixth form colleges | 5,910
| 80 |
Source: The public funding costs of education and
training for 16-19 year-olds in England 1996-97 (DfEE December
1998).
THE FUTURE
Finally, because the Learning and Skills Council will in
future fund 16-18 provision in schools as well as FE, it is important
to note that Ministers have guaranteed that:
(i) a school sixth form cannot lose financially compared
to its 2000-01 funding unless its numbers fall (in which case
there will be a per capita reduction); and
(ii) There will be no downwads convergence by the school
sector. Ministers aspire to see FE converge upwards to school
levels and have said publicly that this will take an unpredictable
amount of time becasue it will depend on the availability of public
funds.
Question 120: Drop-out rates for higher education (HE) students
The most authoritative source of information on HE drop-out
rates are the Performance Indicators in Higher Education in
the UK, published by the Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HEFCE). The latest available figures relate to students
of all ages who started full-time first-degree course in UK HE
Institutions in 1997-98. These show that 17 per cent of all such
students are expected to leave HE without obtaining a HE qualification,
compared to 18 per cent the previous year. These figures have
not been broken down into separate young and mature (aged over
21) entrant rates, although it is acknowledged that within all
subject areas "non-continuation" rates for mature entrants
are higher than for young entrants.
The performance indicators do compare young and mature non-continuation
rates after the first year at HE institutions. The figures show
that for UK HE institutions as a whole a higher proportion of
mature entrants than young entrants do not continue in HE after
their first year. The non-continuation rate after the first year
was 15 per cent for mature entrants in 1997-98 compared to 8 per
cent for young entrants. However, a significant proportion of
the leavers are expected to return to HE after a "year out"—around
16 per cent in the case of the mature first year leavers. There
is no specific information in the performance indicators about
students who leave and/or return at later stages of their full-time
first degree courses.
Department for Education and Employment
April 2001
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