Sir Martin Harris, Director of Fair Access said “It is clear that the application rates do not indicate the catastrophic collapse in demand, nor the disproportionate effect on disadvantaged groups that some had feared. However, they do show a change in the upward trend we have seen over the last five years. Along with others, we will look to monitor very carefully the effect of the new arrangements on participation, particularly among disadvantaged or under-represented groups and in different parts of the sector.

It is too early to draw any firm conclusions from this data but it could indicate that higher fees may have had a small impact on demand at this stage in the cycle. It is not too late to apply for 2012 and it is therefore crucial that the new fee and support arrangements are properly understood by all. Higher education is a life changing experience and deferred fees with affordable repayments and significant maintenance support, particularly for students from lower income backgrounds, mean that no-one need be deterred on financial grounds.

Revised access agreements – key points

Under the revisions, necessitated by Government changes to ‘core’ student number controls, the 25 universities and college will be investing an extra £18.4m[4] in access measures for students from lower-income families and other under-represented groups in 2015-16. This includes: 

• an increase of £37.4m in fee waivers
• a reduction of £13.8m in bursaries and scholarships
• a reduction of £2.1m in outreach and retention measures.

In addition, these institutions are charging £16.3m less in their headline fees[5].

Also:

• 11 institutions have reduced their fee for some or all of their courses, mostly for foundation degrees and foundation years. Five institutions, the University of Chester, University of Cumbria, Institute of Education, Teesside University and Sparsholt College have reduced the fee for some or all of their first degrees (eg undergraduate honours degrees)
• fee reductions range from £50 to £2,900
• no institution has been allowed to change its targets or milestones
• all revised access agreements have been subject to the same rigorous scrutiny and assessed against the same criteria as the original 2012-13 access agreements.

Most universities and colleges have not revised their 2012-13 access agreement and have therefore not changed their fees or financial support packages. Those universities and colleges that have revised their access agreement must now inform all affected applicants of any changes to their fees or financial support package by Wednesday 7 December. This will give applicants who are disappointed with the changed package the opportunity to decide whether to change their application and apply elsewhere before the UCAS deadline of 15 January[6]. Applicants will receive instructions from UCAS later today explaining how to make any changes to their application.

Commentating on the impact of the revisions, Sir Martin Harris, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education, said: “What we have seen is that in addition to reducing their headline fees by £16.3m, institutions have also significantly increased fee waivers. In short, money is not just being moved from one pot to another, there’s also additional investment, particularly in fee waivers, so reducing the net costs for some students.

 “I am encouraged that expenditure on outreach and retention activity has largely been preserved as this is a particularly important area we are keen to protect. Sector-wide, institutions plan to spend £186.1m a year on such activities by 2015-16.

 “As we expected, some institutions have chosen to move money out of bursaries and into fee waivers, so enabling them to reduce their net average fee. Importantly, there has been no net reduction in the overall financial support for any student[7]. However, bursaries and fee waivers are not the same thing. Bursaries are money in a student’s pocket now whereas fee waivers reduce a loan that some students may not need to repay in full. We don’t yet know which will prove more effective in terms of supporting and protecting access and retention. Statistical analysis[8] that we published last year shows that bursaries have had no impact on students’ university choices – in other words they have not been successful to date as a tool to improve access. However, this may change in the new landscape of significantly higher fees. Bursaries may also play an important role in student success and retention, which are now part of OFFA’s remit, and individual universities may have their own evidence in support of this.

 “We will be doing further research on the relative effectiveness of bursaries and fee waivers in supporting and protecting access and retention and if evidence emerges that one method of financial support is more effective than another, then we will advise the Government and the sector accordingly.”

 The new sector-wide picture

Updated sector-wide figures[9] published by OFFA today for all institutions with 2012-13 access agreements show that:

• under their access agreements, English universities and colleges now plan to spend £757.5m[10] a year by 2015-16 on access measures such as bursaries and scholarships, fee waivers, outreach activities (summer schools, mentoring etc) and measures to improve retention
• this includes £285.9m on bursaries and scholarships, £261.3m on fee waivers, £105.5m on outreach activities, £80.6m on retention measures, and  £24.2m on other financial support
• the estimated sector fee average in 2012-13 is now £8,354, down from the £8,393 announced by OFFA earlier this year
• this reduces to £8,071 (down from £8,161) when fee waivers are included.

Notes to editors

1. The 25 institutions (24 HEIs and one FEC) with revised access agreements sought to reduce their net average fee after the government changed student number controls for 2012-13, removing 20,000 places from universities’ ‘core’ student number allocations and reallocating them to a ‘margin’. Institutions who wish to bid for places from the ‘margin’ can only do so if they are charging an average fee of £7,500 or less, once fee waivers are taken into account. They must also demonstrate demand and the quality of their provision. The Higher Education Funding Council for England is implementing the new student number control system for 2012-13 and will be letting universities/colleges know the outcome of their bids in February 2012. See www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2011/bids.htm for more information.
2. The 24 HEIs that have revised their access agreements to bring them within the threshold for bidding for a share of the 20,000 places from the ‘margin’ are: Anglia Ruskin University, Aston University, Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Chester, University of Chichester, University of Cumbria, University of Gloucestershire, University of Hertfordshire, University of Huddersfield, Institute of Education, Leeds Trinity University College, London South Bank University, Nottingham Trent University, Roehampton University, Southampton Solent University, University College Plymouth St Mark and St John, St Mary’s University College, University Campus Suffolk, Teesside University, University of West London, University of Winchester, University of Wolverhampton, University of Worcester and York St John University. One FEC – Sparsholt College Hampshire – has also revised its agreement in order to bid for places from the ‘margin’.
3. The ten FECs with new 2012-13 access agreements are: Bicton College, City College Brighton and Hove, Colchester Institute, Hartpury College, Lincoln College, Myerscough College, Plumpton College, South Essex College, Sussex Coast College Hastings and Sussex Downs College.
4. OFFA has now approved 2012-13 access agreements for 149 institutions – 124 higher education institutions and 25 further education colleges. Since publishing our original decisions in July 2011, three FECs – Askham Bryan College, Blackpool and the Fylde College and Croydon College – have decided they no longer wish to have an access agreement for 2012-13 as they have reduced their fees to £6,000 or below. New access agreements for two further FECs are still under discussion. We expect to issue decisions shortly.
5. The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) is an independent, non-departmental public body established under the Higher Education Act 2004 to help promote and safeguard fair access to higher education. The main way we do this is by approving and monitoring ‘access agreements’. All English universities and colleges offering full-time (and in future, part-time, subject to Parliamentary approval) undergraduate higher education courses must have an access agreement with us in order to charge higher fees. Access agreements set out the fees an institution wishes to charge and the access measures they will put in place to sustain or improve access and student retention. Access measures include outreach (e.g. summer schools, mentoring, after-school tuition and links with schools and colleges in disadvantaged areas) and financial support such as fee waivers, bursaries and scholarships. For more about OFFA, please see our website www.offa.org.uk, particularly the Quick Facts and FAQ in the Press section.

________________________________________________________________

For further information, contact Zita Adamson, Communications Manager at OFFA, on 0117 931 7272 or 0117 931 7171.

OFFA has also received new access agreements from seven publicly funded FECs that wish to bid for places from the ‘margin’ but do not already have an access agreement. 

OFFA will now assess the revised agreements and will inform institutions of its decisions by 30 November. Institutions who receive approval for their revised agreement must then contact existing applicants to let them know that their financial package has changed. This will give applicants affected by the changes time to reconsider their course options, if they wish, by the UCAS deadline of 15 January 2012. OFFA has said it will not approve any changes for 2012-13 that reduce the overall level of financial support to students in existing agreements.

Revisions to access agreements follow Government changes to student number controls for 2012-13 – the so-called ‘core and margin’ system. This will cut up to 20,000 places from ‘core’ student numbers and reallocate them in a ‘margin’ to publicly funded HEIs and FECs that commit to charging an average fee of £7,500 or less (net of fee waivers under the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s rules) and can demonstrate demand and the quality of their provision. Qualifying institutions can bid for an allocation of the places available. See (HEFCE Circular Letter 2011/30).

OFFA will not be naming the institutions that have submitted revised agreements. However, when it announces its decisions on revised agreements for 2012-13, it will name institutions whose access agreements have been approved.

Ends

Notes to editors

• Friday 4 November 2011 was the deadline for universities and colleges wanting to charge fees of more than £6,000 in 2012-13 to submit revised access agreements to OFFA, so that they can bid for places under the new ‘core and margin’ system. OFFA will consider revised agreements that arrive after the 4 November deadline but has warned institutions that it will deal with revisions on a ‘first come, first served’ basis and is likely to turn down revisions for 2012-13 entrants where there is insufficient time for applicants to review their course choices by the UCAS deadline of 15 January 2012
• OFFA’s guidance note ‘Revisions to access agreements for 2012-13’ setting out the criteria that it will use to assess revised access agreements is available at www.offa.org.uk/guidance-notes/revisions-to-access-agreements-for-2012-13-core-and-margin/ 
• Following consultation with the sector, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) published information on 17 October 2011 on the bidding process under the new ‘core and margin’ system. Details can be found at  www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2011/snc.htm
• To date, OFFA has approved 2012-13 access agreements for 141 institutions – 123 higher education institutions and 18 further education colleges. Under the agreements universities and colleges plan to increase investment in access measures to £602 million a year by 2015-16, up from £407 million in 2011-12. This figure rises to £738 million a year when the Government’s contribution to the National Scholarship Programme is included. Under existing access agreements, the estimated sector fee average is £8,393. This reduces to £8,161 when fee waivers are included.
• OFFA published data for those universities and colleges with approved access agreements for 2012-13 in July. This data covers the 139 institutions for which OFFA had approved agreements by 12 July 2011. Access agreements for two further institutions – London Studio Centre and Warwickshire College – were approved after this list was published.
  www.offa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Access-agreement-2012-13-tables-with-intro.pdf
• The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) is an independent, non-departmental public body established under the Higher Education Act 2004 to help promote and safeguard fair access to higher education. The main way we do this is by approving and monitoring ‘access agreements’. All English universities and colleges offering full-time (and in future, part-time, subject to Parliamentary approval) undergraduate higher education courses must have an access agreement with us in order to charge higher fees. Access agreements set out the fees an institution wishes to charge and the access measures they will put in place to sustain or improve access and student retention. Access measures include outreach (e.g. summer schools, mentoring, after-school tuition and links with schools and colleges in disadvantaged areas) and financial support such as fee waivers, bursaries and scholarships. For more about OFFA, please see our website www.offa.org.uk, particularly the Quick Facts and FAQ in the Press section.

________________________________________________________________

For further information, contact Zita Adamson, Communications Manager at OFFA, on 0117 931 7272 or 0117 931 7171.

The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) has warmly welcomed Government improvements to repayment terms for part-time students. Under the changes, announced on 26 October 2011 by Universities Minister David Willetts, part-time students studying at English universities from 2012-13 will start repaying their loans after four years rather than three years[1] as originally proposed.

Notes to editors

• Details of Willetts’ announcement can be found here.
• The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) is an independent, non-departmental public body established under the Higher Education Act 2004 to help promote and safeguard fair access to higher education. The main way we do this is by approving and monitoring ‘access agreements’. All English universities and colleges offering full-time (and in future, part-time, subject to Parliamentary approval) undergraduate higher education courses must have an access agreement with us in order to charge higher fees. Access agreements set out the access measures (e.g. outreach or financial support) that universities and colleges will put in place.

­­­­­­­­­For further information, contact Zita Adamson, Communications Manager at OFFA, on 0117 931 7272 or 0117 931 7171.

Background

Following a consultation period HEFCE has now published its decisions on student control limits for 2012-13 (HEFCE Circular Letter 2011/30). A ‘margin’ of up to 20,000 places will be created by reducing numbers from the ‘core’. These numbers will be redistributed through a bidding process; only publicly funded HEIs and FECs that commit to charging an average fee of £7,500 or less (net of fee waivers under the HEFCE rules) and can demonstrate demand and the quality of their provision will be eligible to bid.

This note sets out our guidance on the changes we will consider, should you wish to revise your agreement in order to reduce your average fees to £7,500 or below in response to government policy. You may seek to do this, for example, by lowering your fee levels or increasing fee waivers, which are counted by HEFCE in calculating your average fee.  We will also consider new access agreements for public providers that wish to bid for places from the ‘margin’ but do not already have an access agreement. 

Our approach

We would not normally expect you to make in-year changes once the application cycle is underway. However, preventing institutions with an average fee of more than £7,500 (net) from revising their agreements would prevent such institutions from responding to government policy by bidding for a share of the 20,000 places available under the ‘margin’. Legal advice to us is clear that, given the policy changes for 2012-13 made by the government after you submitted your 2012-13 access agreement, it would be reasonable to allow you a limited opportunity to revise your agreement. This is particularly so given that it is possible that a reduction in some institutions’ controlled student numbers could damage access to their institution. Whether you take advantage of this opportunity is, of course, a matter for your particular institution to decide.

In considering in-year revisions in these exceptional circumstances, we attach great importance to the need to give applicants who may be disappointed with changes to your financial support sufficient time to withdraw their application and apply elsewhere, if they wish. Therefore, one of the issues we will consider when deciding whether to approve a revised agreement will be the length of time that applicants have prior to the UCAS deadline of 15 January (after which date institutions are not obliged to give equal consideration to applicants).  We will also expect all institutions that wish to revise their agreement to commit to contact all existing applicants to let them know of changes to their package. We will expect you to make all reasonable efforts to ensure that applicants receive this information by contacting them directly. It will not be enough simply to advertise the changes on your website (although you should do this as well).

In revising your access agreement in-year, you should seek to avoid or minimise any potential unfairness to applicants. In doing so, you will wish to consult your students’ union on your proposed changes. You will also need to demonstrate that you have taken equalities issues into account, including any evidence you have on the possible equalities implications of your proposed changes and what steps you will take to remove or minimise any adverse effects. You must provide us with information showing what steps you have taken in this regard. If you do not give us this information or we regard the steps you have taken as inadequate, we may refuse your revised agreement for this reason alone.

Our priority is to approve acceptable revisions in good time to allow applicants to vary their applications without prejudice if they wish.  Therefore, we ask you to submit revised agreements by 4 November. We aim to let you know of our decision by 30 November. Submissions that arrive later than 4 November will still be considered, but you should note that we will process applications on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Where we cannot give you a decision in time for applicants to have a proper opportunity to consider and adjust their choices, we are likely to refuse you permission to implement your revisions for 2012-13 entrants. Therefore, if you wish to submit a revised agreement, it is important that you do so as soon as possible.

Principles

We will assess revisions within the same parameters that we used when considering original submissions for 2012-13. These parameters are in our guidance ‘How to produce an access agreement for 2012-13’ (OFFA 2011/01). However, as stated above, we would not normally expect to make in-year changes and are only doing so because of the change in government policy on student number controls. We have therefore identified some additional criteria that are designed to restrict any changes you make to those that allow you to respond to the policy while also treating applicants fairly. We are unlikely to approve any revision for 2012-13 that does not meet these criteria. They are set out below:

a)      Supporting access to your institution: You must set out how your proposed changes will continue to support access to your institution, and, if appropriate, to higher education more generally. You will also want to show how you have consulted with your students’ union on your proposals. You will need to demonstrate that you have taken equalities issues into account, including any evidence you have on the possible equalities implications of the proposed changes to your agreement and what steps you will take to remove or minimise any adverse effects. 

b)      Fees: We will not allow changes that increase the fee for any student, compared with the fees set out in your current approved access agreement for 2012-13. However, you may reduce the fee levels set out in your current agreement.

c)      Outreach and retention: We are keen to protect access expenditure on outreach as there is clear evidence that long-term sustained outreach activity is effective in widening participation. In addition, a number of access agreements for 2012-13 include increased focus and investment on retention measures, in order to improve performance in this area. If you are proposing to reduce your outreach or retention spend, you will therefore need to persuade us that this will not affect your ability to make progress towards the milestones and targets specified in your agreement. Our expectation in our original guidance was that institutions would wish to increase their outreach expenditure (particularly in light of the end of Aimhigher funding). You should bear in mind that this expectation has not changed.

d)      Net benefits to students: Where you are looking to increase your investment in fee waivers, or to adjust the balance between bursary support, accommodation discounts and fee waivers, this will only be acceptable where the overall effects of such changes do not increase the net costs to any individual student.

e)      Milestones and targets: We would not normally expect institutions to revisit their milestones or targets.

f)       Informing applicants of changes to your financial package in your access agreement: Where you are looking to make changes to your financial package, you must commit to informing all applicants of these changes within five working days of your agreement being approved. In line with our statement above, this will allow applicants sufficient time to re-consider their course options and make timely and informed choices. You must make all reasonable efforts to make sure that applicants receive information about your changed package by contacting them individually; a notice on your website will not be sufficient.

g)      Courses with a 15 October deadline: There are some courses where the deadline for applicants to change options without prejudice has passed – for example, those courses with a UCAS deadline of 15 October. In these cases, where you are proposing changes to your financial support package, you must give existing applicants to these courses a choice of whether to stay on the package that was on offer when they applied, or your revised package. You may need to explain to HEFCE how you have accounted for this in calculating your average fee.

h)      Fee and support packages apply for the duration of the course: As has always been the case, the fee and support package advertised to entrants applies for the duration of their study and cannot subsequently be altered to their detriment.

What do you need to do now?

• Send us your revised access agreement, together with a revised version of the spreadsheet (Annex B) that you submitted alongside your original access agreement, to accessagreements@offa.org.uk. As stated above, the application cycle for 2012-13 entry is now well underway, so we will want to conclude any changes to agreements as soon as possible.
• Once you have submitted an access agreement, we will aim to assess it within a three-week timescale, based on our existing guidance for 2012-13 agreements, and the principles set out above.
• In the event that we approve revisions to your agreement, you must commit to informing all applicants within five working days, and in any event by 7 December, so that applicants have sufficient time to revise their application, should they wish.

Timetable

17 October         HEFCE issues call for bids to the margin

21 October         OFFA issues guidance on submitting revised or new access agreements

4 November        Deadline for submissions to OFFA for revised or new access agreements

7–30 November  OFFA assessment of revised and new access agreements

11 November      Deadline for HEFCE to receive bids to the margin

By 30 November  We aim to let all institutions know of our decisions by this date

By 7 December     Institutions must commit to contact all those who have applied before this date to inform them of changes to their package. This will allow sufficient time for applicants to revise their applications by the 15 January UCAS deadline.

In a guidance note, OFFA tells universities and colleges that it will not approve any changes for 2012-13 that reduce the overall level of financial support to students in existing agreements. OFFA also requires all universities and colleges that succeed in revising their agreement to:

• contact all students who have already applied to let them know of the changes to their financial support package
• give students who have applied for courses with a UCAS deadline of 15 October (e.g. medicine) the choice of staying with the package that was on offer when they applied or switching to their revised package.

To date, 28 universities and colleges have expressed an interest in revising their access agreement to reduce their average fee to £7,500 or below. Eight of these have already submitted revised agreements to OFFA. The wish by institutions to reduce their average fee by, for example, lowering fee levels or increasing fee waivers, follows the ‘core and margin’ proposals announced by the Government in its higher education White Paper – published after OFFA’s April 2011 deadline for submitting 2012-13 access agreements.

OFFA’s guidance states that universities that are considering reducing their outreach or retention spend will need to persuade OFFA that this will not affect their ability to make progress towards their targets and milestones.

Director for Fair Access Sir Martin Harris said: “In deciding how to approach revisions to 2012-13 access agreements, we have sought to minimise the impact on applicants. Our resulting guidance makes it clear that applicants must continue to receive the same overall level of financial support – even if the balance changes between bursaries and fee waivers – and must receive sufficient warning of any revised package to enable them to change their university choices, if they so wish, without prejudice before the UCAS deadline of 15 January.

“At the same time, we have been mindful of legal advice that it would be reasonable of us to give universities and colleges a limited opportunity to revise agreements, given that government policy has changed since universities and colleges first submitted their 2012-13 access agreements. We have also been mindful of the risk to access at individual institutions facing a reduction in their student numbers.”

Universities and colleges that wish to revise their 2012-13 access agreement must submit a revised agreement by 4 November and OFFA will aim to inform all institutions of decisions by 30 November. Institutions that are successful in their application must let students who have already applied to them know of any changes to their package within five working days. This will give students more than a month to reconsider their options before the UCAS deadline of 15 January 2012.

Notes to editors

• OFFA’s guidance note ‘Revisions to access agreements for 2012-13’ is available today (20 October 2011) at www.offa.org.uk/guidance-notes/.
• Following consultation with the sector, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) published information on Monday (17 October 2011) on the bidding process under the new ‘core and margin’ system. Details can be found at  www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2011/snc.htm
• The ‘core and margin’ system will re-allocate a ‘margin’ of up to 20,000 places in 2012-13 to publicly funded HEIs and FECs that commit to charging an average fee of £7,500 or less (net of fee waivers) and can demonstrate demand and the quality of their provision. Qualifying institutions can bid for an allocation of the places available.
• To date, OFFA has approved 2012-13 access agreements for 141 institutions – 123 higher education institutions and 18 further education colleges. Under the agreements universities and colleges plan to increase investment in access measures to £602 million a year by 2015-16, up from £407 million in 2011-12. This figure rises to £738 million a year when the Government’s contribution to the National Scholarship Programme is included. Under existing access agreements, the estimated sector fee average is £8,393. This reduces to £8,161 when fee waivers are included.
• OFFA published data for those universities and colleges with approved access agreements for 2012-13 in July. This data covers the 139 institutions which for which OFFA had approved agreements by 12 July 2011. Access agreements for two further institutions – London Studio Centre and Warwickshire College – were approved after this list was published.
  www.offa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Access-agreement-2012-13-tables-with-intro.pdf
• The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) is an independent, non-departmental public body established under the Higher Education Act 2004 to help promote and safeguard fair access to higher education. The main way we do this is by approving and monitoring ‘access agreements’. All English universities and colleges offering full-time (and in future, part-time, subject to Parliamentary approval) undergraduate higher education courses must have an access agreement with us in order to charge higher fees. Access agreements set out the access measures (e.g. outreach or financial support) that universities and colleges will put in place. For more about OFFA, please see our website www.offa.org.uk, particularly the Quick Facts and FAQ in the Press section.

For further information, contact Zita Adamson, Communications Manager at OFFA, on 0117 931 7272 or 0117 931 7171.

In its fourth monitoring report, the first joint report with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)[2], OFFA finds that English universities and colleges spent a total of £395 million on access measures in 2009-10. This includes £356 million (22.6 per cent of their higher fee income) on bursaries and scholarships for students from lower income and other under-represented groups. Over 402,000 such students received a bursary or scholarship in this period.

Three-quarters (75 per cent) of bursary and scholarship expenditure was spent on students from the very poorest backgrounds, helping more than 271,000 students in receipt of a full state maintenance grant. On average, students in this group received a bursary of £935 a year.

Other key findings in the report published today (Thursday 29 September) are that:

• there is now very near full take-up of bursaries and scholarships[3]
• higher fee income[4] in 2009-10 rose to £1,574 million
• universities and colleges spent £38 million (2.4 per cent of their higher fee income) on additional outreach and widening participation activities, up from £37 million in 2008-09
• 77 per cent of institutions[5] reported that they had either exceeded or met all or most of their statistical targets relating to the number of applicants or entrants from under-represented groups
• 23 per cent of institutions⁵ reported that they had not yet met their targets – though some positive progress was being made.

Commenting on the findings, Sir Martin Harris, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education, said: “Our monitoring shows that expenditure on access measures remains steady, demonstrating universities’ continued commitment to seeking to ensure that all those with the potential and aspiration to go to university are able to do so, regardless of their background.

“The large majority of universities and colleges are also meeting their statistical targets. Where they are not doing so, I am concerned to understand the reasons why. Over the coming months, we will therefore be discussing performance with a range of institutions, including those that have reported the least progress.

“It’s important to be aware that this is a retrospective report showing what happened in 2009-10 and should not be used to tell us what may happen as we move towards the significantly changed  fees and funding regime from 2012-13. New access agreements are in place for 2012-13 and these show stretching targets and considerable increases in expenditure on both outreach and financial support as well as, for the first time, expenditure and commitments on improving retention and student success.

“We are very aware of concern about the potential impact on widening participation of both higher fees and the possible changes to the shape of the sector resulting from the White Paper in terms of changes to student number controls. We do not know how students, or institutions, will respond to the new arrangements.

“We have complete confidence that institutions will wish to redouble their efforts to protect and improve access. An important part of our role will be to understand, at both institutional and sector level, any early evidence of impact on student behaviour or recruitment patterns, in order that we might respond as quickly as possible to any emerging priorities and issues, as well as identifying good practice.

“In the meantime, as applicants for 2012-13 make their decisions on whether and where to study, it’s critical that they understand how the new funding regime works – particularly that they won’t have to pay back any loans until they’re earning more than £21,000 and that universities and colleges are offering more financial support than ever before. This includes the new national scholarships aimed at those most in need. We will therefore be doing all we can to support the work of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information as well as other sector bodies. The message needs to be heard loud and clear that higher education is still open to all, regardless of your family background.”

Sir Alan Langlands, Chief Executive of HEFCE, said: ‘Universities and colleges remain committed to widening participation and in 2009-10 spent significantly more on this crucial activity than the amounts we allocated specifically for this purpose. The range of activities carried out by higher education institutions is varied reflecting their varied missions and circumstances.

‘We will build on the successes of widening participation and fair access and will continue to work in partnership with OFFA to ensure that all prospective students of higher education have the opportunity to benefit from the huge benefits it brings. We need to ensure that as the new higher education landscape develops, widening participation remains high on the agenda.’

Ends

Notes to editors

• The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) is an independent, non-departmental public body established under the Higher Education Act 2004 to help promote and safeguard fair access to higher education. The main way we do this is by approving and monitoring ‘access agreements’. All English universities and colleges offering full-time (and in future, part-time, subject to Parliamentary approval) undergraduate higher education courses must have an access agreement with us in order to charge higher fees. Access agreements set out the access measures (e.g. outreach or financial support) that universities and colleges will put in place.
• For more about OFFA, please see our website www.offa.org.uk, particularly the Quick Facts and FAQ in the Press section.
• In June 2009 the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) received widening participation strategic assessments (WPSAs) from all institutions which it funds with more than 100 (directly funded) FTEs. WPSAs set out the position of widening participation (WP) in institutions’ missions and their strategic aims and objectives for WP. WPSAs demonstrated the considerable commitment across the sector to WP, which has been further evidenced in the first annual monitoring returns against the WPSAs for 2009-10, which this report covers. In 2009-10, institutions continued to commit financial resources to widening participation well above the amounts which HEFCE specifically delivered for this purpose, and in addition to the resources committed through access agreements. They also carried out a range of WP activity, from activities to promote access to higher education to activities to promote student retention and success, and have been developing their ability to evaluate their WP activities and approaches.
• In 2009-10 the basic fee was £1,285 and the maximum higher fee £3,225. The minimum bursary (payable by all institutions charging the maximum fee to full-time undergraduates receiving the full maintenance grant) was £319.
• The threshold for full state maintenance grants for new entrants in 2009-10 remained at £25,000 but the threshold for partial support decreased from £60,005 to £50,020.
• Our monitoring report only covers bursary and scholarship expenditure directed at our target groups – students from lower income and other under-represented groups. We know that some HEIs provide financial support for students who are not in OFFA countable groups. Similarly, we only count expenditure on outreach that is additional to that which HEIs already invested prior to the establishment of access agreements in 2006 and we know HEIs invested in outreach work that fell outside their access agreements.
• As stated in our report, we define ‘lower income’ as students with assessed household incomes below £50,020, the upper threshold for partial state support in 2009-10.
• All figures relate to expenditure by higher education institutions only unless otherwise indicated. This is because the figures for further education colleges are very small and can distort the data.
• For further information, contact Zita Adamson, Communications Manager at OFFA, on 0117 931 7272 or 0117 931 7171.

Ministers at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills are seeking an outstanding individual to replace Sir Martin who is due to step down at the end of this year.

The closing date for applications is Monday 3 October 2011. Interviews will be held on Monday 17 October 2011.

Download the advert for the new Director of Fair Access that has appeared in the national press.

Notes to editors

• The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) is an independent, non-departmental public body established under the Higher Education Act 2004 to help promote and safeguard fair access to higher education. The main way we do this is by approving and monitoring ‘access agreements’. All English universities and colleges offering full-time (and in future, part-time, subject to Parliamentary approval) undergraduate higher education courses must have an access agreement with us in order to charge higher fees. Access agreements set out the access measures (e.g. outreach or financial support) that universities and colleges will put in place.
• For more about OFFA, please see our website www.offa.org.uk, particularly the Quick Facts and FAQ in the Press section.
• For further information, contact Zita Adamson, Communications Manager at OFFA, on 0117 931 7272 or 0117 931 7171.

Background

HEFCE has recently consulted on the implementation of a ‘core and margin’ system, as part of its teaching funding consultation. The system will re-allocate a ‘margin’ of up to 20,000 places in 2012-13 to institutions that have an average fee of £7,500 or less (net of fee waivers) and can demonstrate the quality of their provision. Qualifying institutions will be able to bid for an allocation of the available places.

HEFCE has also published its proposals for how an institution’s net average fee will be calculated, and invited comments on these proposals as part of its consultation.

How to calculate your net average fee

In order to bid for additional places, you will need to commit to an average fee level of £7,500 or below, using HEFCE’s methodology. This takes into account the net average fee across every year of active study for the 2012-13 cohort.

The resulting figure may differ from that published in our Access Agreement data tables for 2012-13 as OFFA’s figure is based on fee levels in 2012-13 only. HEFCE’s assessment also takes into account other factors such as the fees charged for Erasmus students and students on sandwich courses.

HEFCE proposes that, in order to minimise burden, average fees will be monitored as part of the annual OFFA access agreement monitoring return.

Please note that HEFCE will not be publishing its final eligibility criteria for the bidding process until October, following the outcomes of the teaching funding consultation.

What to do if your institution decides to change its fee or support levels to reduce its net average fee

If your institution is considering reducing your net average fee to enable it to bid for some of the 20,000 places, you will need to send us a revised access agreement. 

• Please email us as soon as possible at enquiries@offa.org.uk to register your interest in doing so. This will help us to plan our workload.
• Send us your revised access agreement. You may wish to wait until after HEFCE publishes its final eligibility criteria before working on any revisions, although we can consider changes at any stage. Similarly, if you do not currently have an access agreement but now wish to produce one, you should discuss this with us as soon as possible. As we are now entering the application cycle for 2012-13 entry, please make sure that any changes you make to fees or financial support do not disadvantage those who have applied for 2012-13 entry early in the application cycle.
• Once you have submitted an access agreement, we will aim to assess it within a three-week timescale, based on our existing guidance for 2012-13 agreements.

Got a query?

If you have any queries about revising your access agreement, please contact us by emailing enquiries@offa.org.uk or phoning 0117 931 7171.

He takes back the role from Sir Graeme Davies, Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of London, who was appointed as interim director while Sir Martin received treatment for cancer.

Sir Martin is scheduled to complete his term as director at the end of this year. In the recent higher education White Paper, the Government announced its intention to recruit a new director this year. The position of Director of Fair Access to Higher Education is a statutory appointee (under section 31 of and Schedule 5 to the Higher Education Act 2004).

Notes to editors

• The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) is an independent, non-departmental public body established under the Higher Education Act 2004 to help promote and safeguard fair access to higher education. The main way we do this is by approving and monitoring ‘access agreements’. All English universities and colleges offering full-time (and in future, part-time, subject to Parliamentary approval) undergraduate higher education courses must have an access agreement with us in order to charge higher fees. Access agreements set out the access measures (e.g. outreach or financial support) that universities and colleges will put in place.
• For more about OFFA, please see our website www.offa.org.uk, particularly the Quick Facts and FAQ in the Press section.

For further information, contact Zita Adamson, Communications Manager at OFFA, on 0117 931 7272 or 0117 931 7171.