APPENDIX A
1. UNIVERSITY
OF DERBY
1.1 The University of Derby is a diverse
institution. Diversity is reflected in the many different types
of students, often from low participation groups, and modes of
study as well as the broad range of activities present. It has
an applied, vocational, learner-led mission serving 23,000 students
with a very large proportion of students (63%) having a domicile
within 50 miles of Derby. Derby is a relatively modest University
in financial terms with a turnover of approx £73 million
but has many funding streams including all major teaching sources—HEFCE,
TTA, NHS and LSC and consequent accountabilities. The professional
orientation of programmes also brings with it accountability to
many professional standards bodies. It has introduced a wide range
of Foundation degrees in recent years. In academic year 2003-04
full time undergraduate students represented 36% of student headcount
but 58% of income. Part time students (including e-learning and
learning through work) represent 40% of the student body but only
19% of income. The balance of student numbers is made up of full
time FE, overseas students, and franchise students.
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
1.2 If the future composition of the student
body remains as in 2003-04, the majority of Derby's full time
undergraduate students will be eligible for some financial support
under the Government's maintenance grant proposals with 53% eligible
for the full £2,700 and a further 12% eligible for a proportion.
Under the bursary proposals currently before OFFA, 65% of students
would thus be in receipt of a bursary from the University on introduction
of the new fees regime. Over 50% will be in receipt of bursaries
worth at least £1,000 as part of Derby's commitment to maintaining
participation from under-represented groups. Of the implied uplift
of approximately £1,800 per student on introduction of the
£3,000 fee, we shall therefore be returning £1,000 per
student to over 50% of the student body. In total we anticipate
that Derby's proposals currently before OFFA imply returning to
the student almost 60p in every £1 raised in financial support.
For 9,323 full time undergraduate students (in steady state),
that would imply income rising by £16.8 million and payments
to students taking £10.1 million, leaving a very modest sum
available for University infrastructure and improvements to the
student experience, as compared with other universities with a
socio-economic composition which less fully reflects low participation
groups. Derby will not be proposing large bursaries for academic
high flyers from low participation groups as this initiative seems
to be about re-distributing between competing institutions students
that would go to university anyway, as opposed to ensuring that
students that would otherwise be discouraged are enabled to enter.
Part-time Fees
1.3 The University of Derby part-time market
is unlikely to be able to sustain fees much higher than those
currently in force and will not sustain pro-rata rates without
such students having access to other means of support.
2. UNIVERSITY
OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE
2.1 Access and widening participation figures
for Gloucestershire for 2003-04 confirm that the University attracts
45% of its full-time undergraduate students from the local and
surrounding areas. 6% of full-time undergraduate are from ethnic
minority groups, 16% are mature students over 25, 10% are students
with a disability. Of the University's part-time undergraduates
47% were from the local and surrounding area, 7% were from ethnic
minority groups, 67% were mature students over 25 and 12% were
students with disabilities.
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
2.2 As with many universities, Gloucestershire
will either be basing their bursary packages on "residual
income" or the related "Maintenance Grant" awarded
by LEAs. The Student Loan Company (SLC) holds both of these data
elements on their systems and it is essential that this central
data source can be used to calculate "University top-up bursaries".
Impact of plans to pay tuition fee income to institutions
by instalment
2.3 The University has modelled the impact
of the proposed two instalment payment profile from SLC/Government.
On the assumption that ALL students (new and returning) opt to
defer their fees in 2006-07 and take out a "Fee Loan",
then the cumulative monthly cash impact between September 2006
and a 1st instalment in February 2007 would total £3 million.
(The £3 million represents the difference between fee receipts
in 2004-05, compared with projected net fee receipts in 2006-07.)
2.4 To put this value in context:
— Monthly salary costs are approximately
£2.3 million.
— It is almost the total value of extra
fee income to be generated through top-up fees.
— It represents around a third of the
total fee income expected during 2006-07 from home full-time undergraduate
fees.
— It represents around 20 days of usual
monthly expenditure.
— The University cash balances and
short-term investments at the end of July 2004 stood at £2.6
million.
Gloucestershire are extremely concerned about
this and consider the proposal as serious and potentially damaging.
Part-time Fees
2.5 The recent announcement of increased
support package for maintenance in 2005-06 is welcomed, but these
levels of support reflect current fee rates. If the University
were to increase part-time fees in 2006-07 pro-rata to FT fees,
then the support package currently announced would not be sufficient
and may therefore have a detrimental impact on recruitment levels.
3. KINGSTON UNIVERSITY
3.1 The Kingston approach to bursaries is
for the main part to reward students identified as necessitous
using the same criteria and assessment applied by LEAs in the
determination of student loan eligibility. There will be additional
support for students who are the first generation in their family
to participate in HE who are identified in Kingston's progression
compacts with local schools and colleges.
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
3.2 There are currently 18,500 students
at Kingston University, made up of 92% (17,000) UK & EU and
8% (1,500) overseas. 83% (15,300) of the student population are
studying at undergraduate level and of these 93% (14,250) are
of UK/EU fee-status. The University is consistently successful
in attracting students from traditionally low participation backgrounds.
Based on financial background, 50% of the current student population
would be eligible for the statutory bursary of up to £300
and a university bursary award based on a sliding scale; 20% of
students receiving a further £700, 20% receiving a further
£300 and 10% receiving a further £100. Kingston also
supplies a £300 local scholarship for eligible students from
selected colleges and schools in accordance with the University's
widening participation strategy. Based on projections using the
current student number profile, and including administrative costs,
the bursary scheme is expected to absorb approx 22% of additional
fee income (£1.2 million in 2006-07 rising to £4.9 million
in 2009-10).
4. LONDON METROPOLITAN
UNIVERSITY
4.1 London Met is London's largest unitary
university with over 35,000 students. The University have demonstrated
a sustained commitment to widening participation and continues
to make a disproportionate contribution to the national agenda
of raising participation rates among previously under-represented
groups. 55% of our full-time first degree students are under 25,
of which 96% are from state schools or colleges, with 37% from
social classes IIIM, IV and V. 12% are from low participation
neighbourhoods. 45% are mature entrants to higher education. 55%
of our students are non-white. London Met believes that the introduction
of top-up fees, with increased student debt, will cause a significant
proportion of our prospective students to reconsider their decision
to enter higher education—many of the mature students already
have debt when they join and have families to support. Many younger
students are from families with no experience of debt of this
sort and Islamic students have religious objections to debt.
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
4.2 Although the University intends to charge
the maximum £3,000 fee, they plan to provide a bursary of
up to £1,000 for the poorest students, reducing on a sliding
scale to a minimum bursary of £350 for those with net eligible
income of £35,000. Although the notional increase in the
University's income from the introduction of a £3,000 fee
is over £18 million, the net additional income to the University,
after administration costs, is estimated at approx £9 million—already
eroded by increases in costs not controlled by the University,
such as increased employer contributions for non-academic staff
to the London Pension Fund to recoup the substantial deficit on
that fund.
Impact of plans to pay tuition fee income to institutions
by instalment
4.3 The impact of payment to higher education
institutions by instalment would not be particularly marked for
London Met, as long as they are in receipt of a rephasing of grant
to compensate for the loss of the 50% first instalment at enrolment.
The University already suffers the problem of delay in receipt
of fees from the Student Loans Company (SLC), the first payment
being made in February. London Met also has a significant number
of students who apply late to the LEA for assessment, with the
complication of part-funding and delays in documentation leading
to very late payment from the SLC.
OFFA
4.4 OFFA's response has been to request
information on the additional activities London Met will undertake
to widen access. The University takes the stance that all current
work already delivers widening access, so the point on additionality
is not relevant to anything like the same extent as for institutions
with a different mission. OFFA fails to recognise the different
starting-points in the sector.
Part-time Fees
4.5 The part-time fee issue is significant
for London Met as they already have many situations of part-time
students in the middle of their degrees coming to re-enrol and
deciding not to continue because of changes in the financial support
mechanisms.
5. MIDDLESEX
UNIVERSITY
5.1 Middlesex University is a large and
diverse institution with 22,000 students and 9,000 students at
collaborative institutions in the UK and overseas. Middlesex's
UK student profile includes 97% of students from state schools,
38% from the lowest socio-economic groups and 47% from ethnic
minority groups.
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
5.2 On administration and funding of bursaries
and instalments, Middlesex anticipates that extra administration
will cost £100,000+ pa and that payments of bursaries will
cost approximately £1.5 million pa by year three.
Part-time Fees
5.3 This is a very unclear area under the
new fees regime. If the changes agreed for 2005-06 are continued
into 2006-07 and it remains the case that part-time students are
not eligible for a fees loan, then there will be a mismatch between
what a part-time student can receive in cash towards fees versus
a full-time student.
6. ROEHAMPTON
UNIVERSITY
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
6.1 Roehampton has a track record of recruiting
a high proportion of its students from under-represented groups,
and consistently admits a percentage of students from lower socio-economic
groups that is above the national average, but the university
now finds itself penalised financially for doing so. Payment of
the Minimum Standard Bursary (MSB) will cost Roehampton in excess
of £250,000 pa—despite Roehampton's own market research
suggesting that this will not have a material effect in our recruitment
of under-represented groups. Universities like Roehampton are
required to redistribute a higher proportion of their fee income
than those universities with a much less diverse social mix. This
means having a lower proportion of additional income to invest
in students, despite the recognition in the White Paper that there
is an additional cost to educating and supporting students from
less traditional backgrounds (Para 6.24). It also means that,
in the educational market created by the HE Act, universities
like Roehampton are disadvantaged by having less control over
the usage of additional income to attract potential students.
OFFA
6.2 The HE Act quite correctly required
universities to do all they can to attract applications from prospective
students who are members of groups currently under-represented
in higher education, and to provide financial assistance to students.
Roehampton does this well already, and will continue to be committed
to widening access. The aim of MSBs is, according to OFFA, "to
minimise the perceived deterrent of tuition fees". The Director
of the Office for Fair Access predicts that universities will
be paying up to £200 million pa in financial support schemes
to students from under-represented groups. There is, however,
no evidence that spending this substantial sum of money will have
the desired effect. The University's market research conducted
in south London suggests that it will not.
6.3 Given Roehampton's situation, and the
extremely successful track record of working effectively to recruit
under-represented students, the University sought an Access Agreement
which committed it to increasing tried and tested work in widening
participation, as well as to providing the MSB to students in
receipt of the full state grant. This was returned by the Office
for Fair Access, with the comment that "it would be of benefit
to your application . . . [to] consider, particularly in relation
to your position in the market, whether an increase in bursary
investment would be appropriate". Apparently the £300
bursary is "significantly below the average levels for individual
bursary levels, overall investment and investment in bursaries
that we have seen so far from other comparable institutions".
Roehampton are therefore now being asked to increase the amount
of money redistributed to students not on the basis of addressing
student need, but in response to OFFA's perception of our position
in the market. As they are advised that to talk to other universities
about these issues could put them in breach of competition law,
this puts Roehampton at rather a loss in that they do not know
what the "market" is thinking of doing, although OFFA
apparently does. However, the University regards it as odd that
OFFA should be "bidding up" access agreements in this
way, especially given the lack of research into whether this will
have any effect in increasing participation.
7. THE UNIVERSITY
OF WOLVERHAMPTON
7.1 The University of Wolverhampton leads
the country in the recruitment of students from socially disadvantaged
backgrounds with over 50% of its intake from socio-economic groups
4, 5, 6 and 7 compared to a national average of 29% and a benchmark
of 37%. The University, which has a turnover exceeding £100
million, has 23,000 students, most of whom take vocationally-orientated
courses. It works in partnership with schools and colleges on
the 14-19 agenda and the RDA on regional skills and employment,
making it a significant contributor to economic and social regeneration
in the Black Country. The University has recently been designated
by HEFCE as a national Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning
(CETL) in Enabling Achievement in a Diverse Student Body.
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
7.2 The University expects over half of
its students to qualify for the minimum standard bursary, which
will cost the University at least £1 million pa. They have
proposed to OFFA a package of bursaries and fee discounts which
will mean that more than half of their students will have £3,000
pa "cash in hand" while they study, whether from DfES
maintenance grants or University bursaries. The cost of these
schemes to the University is likely to absorb between one-third
and one-half of the additional income raised.
Part-time Fees
7.3 The University expects to have approximately
8,500 full-time undergraduates paying fees of £3,000. They
also have a further 5,000 part-time students who under the current
rules will not be able to defer payment of fees, and will not
be eligible for the same level of means-tested maintenance grant
support to which full-time students will have access. The loss
of income to the University represented by these students, to
whom are unlikely to be able to charge top-up fees, is estimated
to be £4.5 million pa.
8. UNIVERSITY
OF TEESSIDE
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
8.1 Teesside anticipates that 25% of its
student population will qualify for the Minimum Standard Bursary
(MSB). A further 30% will come from backgrounds with a family
income below £25,000. The University is committed to spending
47.7% of fee income in the first year (33.8% by year three) on
measures intended to support the participation of students from
less affluent backgrounds, and a further 26.6% (7.65% by year
three) in direct support for students in order to protect developing
and important other areas of provision.
Role and Remit of Student Loan Company (SLC)
8.2 The precise role of the SLC is still
unclear and even the information that it will provide to institutions
is likely to be relatively late in the applications cycle—after
applicants for the most part have made firm choices. It is not
clear if this will exceed information about entitlement to MSBs.
Because the role and remit of the SLC remains unclear, Teesside
anticipates that it may need to establish its own system in parallel,
in order to enable applicants to make informed decisions. There
is a danger that applicants could need therefore to make two sets
of applications or that there could be a divergence between the
two systems.
8.3 This is particularly likely given the
practice of not announcing the levels of statutory student support
until the November preceding the academic year since the projected
bursary scheme relies, in part, on family income levels related
to the statutory system. Early understanding of financial support
was always important to applicants—but now it varies considerably
between institutions and the information is likely to be less
clear.
Impact of plans to pay tuition fee income to institutions
by instalment
8.4 This will inevitably cause some cash
flow issues for the University—which will only partially
be addressed by phasing the payment of bursaries. The University
reluctantly accepts that the timing of bursary payments must be
dictated by the timing of the receipt of additional fee income
rather than by understandings of student need if the latter is
subject to February or later instalment payment.
Part-time Fees
8.5 Teesside has committed itself to retaining
part-time fees at approximately current levels—ie approximately
£600 (£1,200 FTE). This decision is based on the University's
desire to ensure that students for whom part-time is the only
effective option are not disadvantaged by the relatively limited
financial support available. The University believes that to charge
fees at a level established by the full-time fee could lead to
a collapse in part-time participation unless such an increase
were matched by corresponding access to loans to pay fees.
8.6 Much of the work with part-time students
is informed by the University's mission of providing opportunities
since these are often adult returners. The capacity to charge
a higher fee of up to £3,000 is a response to the under-funding
of teaching generally—but it addresses the under-funding
of full-time provision only. If the same funding were available
to support the part-time work the University would have additional
revenue of £5.4 million (based on FTE of approximately £3,000).
9. UNIVERSITY
OF CENTRAL
LANCASHIRE (UCLAN)
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
9.1 UCLan has decided to award flat-rate
bursaries of £1,000 to all students paying/eligible for the
£3,000 fee, up to a lead family income of £60,000 pa.
UCLan estimates that this will consume 55% of the additional money
raised by moving to £3,000 fees. The additional cost of administering
our fees and bursary policy is calculated at:
Impact of plans to pay tuition fee income to institutions
by instalment
9.2 The current plans to pay fee invoices
by instalments commencing in February 2007 will cause serious
cash-flow problems for UCLan and will compromise the ability to
pay bursaries at the time students need them most.
Part-time Fees
9.3 UCLan has decided that it is simply
too risky to put up part-time fees in 2006 and are therefore keeping
them the same. As one of the largest providers of part-time HE
this is a very serious and major issue for the University.
10. UNIVERSITY
OF EAST
LONDON (UEL)
10.1 UEL supports the development of the
Thames Gateway and its peoples. Diversity statistics for full-time
EU undergraduate students are: 7% in receipt of Disabled Student's
Allowance, 20% over 25 years of age, 57% from black/minority ethnic
groups. According to figures supplied by the Higher Education
Statistics Agency (table T1b), 43% of UEL's full-time students
under the age of 25 fall into socio-economic groups 4, 5, 6 and
7; ie making them "working class".
Additional fee income/impact of bursaries and
administration costs
10.2 UEL will be losing 20% of the extra
income in scholarships, bursaries and additional outreach activity—see
following Table:
|
| 2006-07
| 2007-08 | 2008-09
|
|
| Extra fee income | £1,800
| £1,845 | £1,891
|
| Gross income | £4,860,000
| £9,132,750 | £13,190,597
|
| SMB | £300
| £308 | £315
|
| Cost of SMB | £388,800
| £730,620 | £1,055,248
|
| Scholarships | £100,000
| £190,000 | £271,000
|
| Bursaries | £324,000
| £864,000 | £1,350,000
|
| Outreach | £80,000
| £80,000 | £80,000
|
| Total Cost | £892,800
| £1,864,620 | £2,756,248
|
|
| 18.40% |
20.40% | 20.90%
|
|
Part-time Fees
10.3 At most 20% of UEL's EU undergraduate part-time
students are employer-sponsored. The University strongly suspects
that at the new implied fees only vocational part-time higher
education will survive. UEL proposes that the Government raises
the fee element of the part-time student grant in line with the
increase in implied fees; ie £1,500 for a 50% programme.
However, if the Government went most of the way (eg to £1,200)
UEL, for one, would be willing to respond by bridging the gap
with part- time bursaries.
23 February 2005
| 
