HEFCE funding for higher education 2013-14

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has announced its high-level funding decisions for higher education in England, following the annual grant letter from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and subsequent decisions by the HEFCE Board on 31 January. Allocations to individual universities and colleges will be announced on 21 March. In 2013-14, the second year of the transition to the new funding arrangements for higher education, HEFCE will continue to invest for the benefit of students and the wider public. We remain committed to sustaining a high-quality teaching experience and to supporting high-cost and strategically important subjects, widening participation and smaller specialist institutions. We also support the Government’s drive to improve efficiency, and will continue to work with universities and colleges to deliver savings.
The total amount the Board agreed for distribution for the 2013-14 academic year is £4.47 billion. This breaks down as follows:
£2.3 billion for teaching
Overall HEFCE teaching funding has reduced from £3.2 billion last year. This reflects a reduction in the numbers of students who entered higher education under the old funding regime, as they complete their studies, and an increase in the numbers of ‘new-regime’ students as they commence and continue theirs.
The increase in tuition fees for new-regime students is in most cases significantly greater than the reduction in HEFCE grant and, on average, will result in higher income per student for universities and colleges in 2013-14 than in 2011-12.
We have increased the rates at which we fund both old-regime and new-regime students by around 1 per cent compared to the current academic year. Under the new funding arrangements HEFCE will continue to fund widening participation activity (£105 million in 2013-14) and student retention (£228 million in 2013-14).
In recognition of the importance of postgraduate provision we are continuing to provide additional funding for taught postgraduate students, who are not eligible for publicly funded tuition fee loans.
We recognise the complexity of having two funding regimes running in parallel and the administrative burden that this places on universities and colleges. We will support them in adjusting to the new regime, and keep any change to a minimum.
£1.6 billion for research
This is the same cash level of funding that we have allocated for research in the past two years; we are not changing our funding formula for research this year. HEFCE remains the single biggest funder of university research in England.
The single largest element of our funding, for mainstream quality-related research (QR), is just over £1 billion (including London weighting). We will continue to support research degrees, with £240 million. The other elements of research funding comprise QR charity funding (£198 million), QR business funding (£64 million) and funding for National Research Libraries (£6 million). Read more...
See also Board decisions.