1. I am writing to you to provide early notification of the decisions taken by the HEFCE Board on funding for universities and colleges for the 2014-15 academic year, and decisions taken on the approach to recalculating elements of recurrent teaching grant for academic years 2012-13 and 2013-14. On Monday 24 March 2014, institutions will be able to download their recurrent grant letter and tables for each year from the HEFCE extranet. The content of these documents will be embargoed until 0001 on Thursday 27 March 2014: we will publish full information about our allocations to all institutions on that date.
2. The Board has made decisions on the funding to be distributed in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years in the light of the funding for each financial year (1 April to 31 March) announced in the grant letter to HEFCE from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) of 10 February 2014. That letter made changes to the funding previously announced for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years, as well as providing indicative figures for the 2015-16 financial year. More...

2nd EUA Funding Forum - Strategies for efficient funding of higher education
Hosted by the University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy, 9-10 October 2014
The higher education funding community comes together again in Bergamo on
9 and 10 October 2014. Take part in EUA’s second Funding Forum, join the debate on the future of higher education funding and share experiences with colleagues and peers from around Europe.
A biannual event, the Funding Forum is a unique, inclusive platform open to all higher education funding stakeholders – university leaders and managers, researchers, students, public authorities, public and private funders & partners. This year’s Forum focuses on designing strategies for efficient and sustainable funding of higher education in Europe. More...

By Roger Riddell. Forbes this week released its list of the 500 richest people in the world. Of course, the top of the list was filled with the usual suspects: Gates, Slim, Buffett, Ellison, the Kochs, the Waltons. While these people are probably best known for their business endeavors, they also have a hand in philanthropy.
Education consistently finds itself among the industries where the world's richest people choose to give or (sometimes controversially) exert their influence. Here's a look at how the 10 richest people in the world have shaped education. More...

By Mary Johnson. Over the next month or so, letters of acceptance will be in the mailboxes and inboxes of millions of anxious college-bound seniors and returning adults across the country, which means decision making is in full swing from now until May 1st.
The U.S. Department of Education is currently pondering the creation of a new Postsecondary Institutional Ratings System (known as PIRS) to help Americans make smart choices about their college selection. PIRS is slated to use institutional and outcomes data like graduation rates and student profiles. Today, students and families can make their own assessments of the financial and career right "fit" for them using concrete and practical data points readily available. More...

By John Morgan. Slowing growth in international student numbers could have “a material impact on the sector”, while a financial blow from pensions could be looming. The Higher Education Funding Council for England’s annual report on the ‘Financial health of the higher education sector’, based on 2012-13 results and 2013-14 forecasts, also predicts that the abolition of student number controls will widen the financial gap between individual universities. More...