HEFCE Annual Conference

Royal Holloway, University of London

1 and 2 April 2009

Tim Melville-RossChair

1. The 2008 RAE

2. Research issues going forward

3. The recurrent grants

4. Learning and teaching

5. Knowledge transfer

6. Future funding

7. Growth and ASNs

8. Widening participation

9. Employer engagement

10. STEM

11. Capital funding

12. Regulation

13. HEFCE’s role

14. Taking the planning process forward.

Current issues

UK research remains at the forefront in the world…

• 17% submitted activity assessed as world leading (4*)

• 37% assessed as internationally excellent (3*)

• 9% of submissions contained at least 50% 3* and 4* with the rest internationally recognised.

The 2008 RAE (1)

Strength across the sector…

• 150 of 159 HEIs have at least 5% world leading research in at least one of their submissions

…as well as in depth…

• 24 institutions have at least 40% of research activity in 3* or 4* in all of their submissions.

The 2008 RAE (2)

• £7,994 million available for 2009-10

• Overall cash increase of 4%

• £4,782 million teaching funding, up 2.5%

• Total research funding of £1,572 million, up 7.7%

• Reduction in special funding from £411 million in 2008-09 to £316 million in 2009-10.

Recurrent grants

‘HEFCE provides QR research funding to English universities. The CSR07 allocations are: £1,444 million in 2008-09; £1,509 million in 2009-10; and £1,634 million in 2010-11.

The 2010-11 figures are indicative and will be finalised in early 2010’

Future funding

David Lammy, House of Commons, 16 March 2009

Home and EC full-time equivalent student numbers including students funded from sources other than HEFCE

800,000

900,000

1,000,000

1,100,000

1,200,000

1,300,000

1,400,000

2000-01

01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09

Year

FT

E S

tud

ents

Total FTE

Full-time and sandwich

Source: Derived from HESES/HEIFES

• £99.4 million allocated to support infrastructure developments

• 10,700 new co-funded places for 2008-09; 15,900 for 2009-10

• Average rate of employer co-funding in 2009-09 just over 30%

• 60 lead universities and FE colleges delivering co-funded provision

• Economic Challenge Investment Fund launched, £50 million – half from HEFCE.

Employer engagement

STEM subjects• £350 million six year demand raising and

capacity building programme

• Additional £25 million per annum continues for very high cost laboratory subjects

• Signs of success in accepted UCAS applicants in 2007-08 compared to 2006-07:

– Physics and chemistry both increased by 3.2%

– Maths increased by 8.3%

– Engineering increased by 8.5%

Key issues

• The importance of having an intermediary body

• Maintaining the autonomy of the sector

• Managing change in an age of uncertainty