Heads of HEFCE-funded further education colleges, Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions
Organisations with an interest in higher education
Responses should be returned by e‑mail by 1700 on Wednesday 3 December.
HEFCE’s current Business Plan runs from 2011 to 2015. During 2014 HEFCE has developed this new draft business plan for 2015 to 2020. We aim to publish our new Business Plan in February 2015, reflecting as far as possible the feedback received from this consultation exercise. More...

This report provides an overview of the financial health of the higher education sector in England. The analysis covers the financial forecasts for the period 2013-14 to 2016-17, as submitted by higher education institutions to HEFCE in December 2013 and July 2014.
Show/hide contents and executive summary. More...

Equality Challenge Unit, on behalf of the summit partners, commissioned consultants Schneider-Ross to understand why some senior leaders champion equality and diversity, and the evidenced institutional benefits of their approach. ‘The rationale for equality and diversity: How vice-chancellors and principals are leading change’ was launched at the Committee of University Chairs’ autumn plenary on 16 October 2014. More...

An evaluation of the assessment process for impact in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) is now under way.
HEFCE, in partnership with the other UK higher education funding bodies, has commissioned RAND Europe to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of impact in the REF. This will look at the strengths and weaknesses of the assessment process for impact, and consider any implications for how impact is assessed in future exercises. More...

Cedefop presented its work to the Greek Parliament, for the first time, on Thursday. A delegation headed by Director James Calleja addressed MPs of the Education and Social Affairs select committees and answered questions on the agency’s contribution to the development of vocational education and training (VET) and its cooperation with Greek authorities and VET institutions.
Welcoming the delegation, Education Affairs committee chair Spyros Taliadouros noted that ‘for many years we have developed strong relations with Cedefop and we have been working together on skills, qualifications and competences, as well as on lifelong learning issues. Especially important has been Cedefop’s contribution to the national qualifications framework (NQF) development process, which is one of the European Commission’s most significant initiatives for recognition of skills and promotion of lifelong learning.’ More...

‘Europe’s true problem is not one of a deficit of skills, but primarily a deficit of creation of good quality jobs,’ Cedefop Director James Calleja told the European Parliament of Enterprises on 16 October in Brussels.
In his statement on skills mismatch and youth unemployment, Mr Calleja said that most of Europe’s unemployment is cyclical, not structural in nature: ‘Cedefop studies (2012) indicate a rising tendency towards a higher “over-qualification” or “over-skilling” rate of the employee workforce (i.e. workers have skills that outweigh those needed to perform their job duties).’ More...

Arguing for guidance to ease the integration of third country immigrants into the European labour market may seem untimely given today’s high youth unemployment, but anticipating future developments and informing policy-makers are one of Cedefop’s main tasks.
Although labour demand will continue to be weak in the coming years, Cedefop’s skill forecasts point to another challenge already visible in some countries: namely a falling labour supply and shortages as the population ages. Tackling this may require not only bringing more indigenous people into the labour force, but also encouraging economic migration to address skill shortages. More...

“We strongly believe the moment has come when we can move to a society where All individuals can learn Anytime, Anywhere, using Any device and with the support of Anyone”.
That was the defiant message given by Xavier Prats-Monné, the EC Director General for Education, speaking on the anniversary of ‘OpenEducationEuropa’ and the ‘Opening up Education’ initiative. More...

To reach the height of its potential, online learning needs to effectively deal with the issue of online security for learners. The Trust Challenge is a competition for institutions and organisations that are working to make online education safer in real-life contexts, with over 1.2 million USD to be awarded. More...

The Open Access Button gives knowledge-seekers everywhere easy access to academic research papers that would otherwise be behind a paywall. The Open Access Button was developed by two students and debuted during this year's Open Access Week. More...