La Cour des comptes rend public, mardi 12 février 2013, son rapport public annuel (RPA). Ce rapport se compose de trois tomes. Le premier comporte les observations et recommandations de la Cour et des chambres régionales et territoriales des comptes (CRTC). Le deuxième est consacré aux suites données par les institutions et organismes contrôlés aux observations et recommandations formulées les années précédentes. Le dernier tome présente de façon synthétique les activités de la Cour et des CRTC en 2012.
Le financement de la formation professionnelle continue: une refonte inaboutie du réseau de collecte
Le financement de la formation professionnelle continue résulte dans notre pays d’un principe légal d’obligation de financement à la charge des entreprises. La loi prévoit qu’une partie des sommes correspondant à l’effort de formation doit être versée à des « organismes paritaires collecteurs agréés » (OPCA) qui redistribuent les contributions ainsi collectées. En 2011, ces organismes ont collecté un montant total de 6,5 Md€. La Cour a analysé ce dispositif dans un rapport public thématique d’octobre 2008 consacré à la « formation professionnelle tout au long de la vie ». Il y était notamment montré que:
- les OPCA, à l’époque au nombre d’une soixantaine, étaient trop émiettés, ce qui se traduisait par des coûts de fonctionnement élevés;
- l’encadrement réglementaire de leurs frais de gestion n’incitait pas suffisamment à la réalisation d’économies;
- la mutualisation des fonds de la formation professionnelle entre les entreprises restait à un niveau insuffisant, en raison notamment de la faible efficacité de l’action menée par le fonds unique de péréquation, censé organiser des transferts financiers entre OPCA.
En définitive, le système n’était pas en mesure d’orienter efficacement les fonds de la formation professionnelle vers ceux qui, demandeurs d’emploi, jeunes, ou salariés peu qualifiés, sont dans une situation fragile face aux évolutions du marché du travail. La Cour faisait donc des recommandations pour corriger ces dysfonctionnements: diminution drastique du nombre des OPCA, création de structures propres à mobiliser et à orienter l’effort de formation vers les salariés les moins qualifiés. Elle ajoutait qu’à défaut de progrès significatif dans ce sens, « la question se poserait de façon pressante de transférer la collecte des fonds de la formation professionnelle (…) à un organisme unique, voire aux URSSAF ».
La loi du 24 novembre 2009 relative à l’orientation et à la formation professionnelle tout au long de la vie s’est inscrite dans les orientations de la Cour. Elle a notamment abouti à une réforme du réseau des OPCA et a créé une nouvelle structure de mutualisation qui s’est substituée au fonds unique de péréquation sous l’appellation de « fonds paritaire de sécurisation des parcours professionnels ».
Trois ans après le vote de la loi du 24 novembre 2009, alors que les dispositions de cette dernière sont aujourd’hui pleinement entrées en vigueur, la Cour a effectué un contrôle de suivi sur la collecte des fonds de la formation professionnelle continue.
Il en ressort que les évolutions intervenues depuis 2009 sont généralement positives mais doivent encore être confortées. Si le nombre d’OPCA a été nettement réduit, leurs frais de gestion restent à un niveau élevé et la mutualisation des fonds, bien qu’en progrès, doit encore être améliorée. Télécharger le rapport sur Le financement de la formation professionnelle continue: une refonte inaboutie du réseau de collecte.

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.

The NIH on Thursday issued a notice titled, “NIH Operation Plan in the Event of a Sequestration.” For those of you following the sequestration talks here in the United States, the following should come as no surprise. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is facing an 8.2 percent across-the-board cut in future years (5.3 percent for 2013) which is set to have long-term repercussions for scientific advancement in this country. To put this in context, the average basic research grant in the U.S. is five years long, meaning that only 20 percent of these grants come to their end every year. Of that 20 percent, roughly half are renewed, leaving approximately 10% of annual funding levels available to support new investigator grants. Read more...

Following last year’s EUA Funding Forum, EUA has published the first contributions to its newly created “University Funding Articles Series”. This collection of articles, available on the EUA website, aims to provide the reader with a variety of updated sources on the topic of higher education funding from practitioners in the field.
This first series of contributions stems directly from EUA’s Funding Forum, which took place at the University of Salzburg in June 2012. A number of experts who presented their work at the event have authored the papers. The selection of papers covers different topics such as the future of European research funding for universities; the evolution towards formula-based funding for teaching and the introduction of performance indicators in university funding. The first series of articles also explore models for income diversification at universities and business schools, and the European Students’ Union has contributed a piece on “financing the students’ future”.
This series can be read in conjunction with a number of other useful resources gathered on this page, along with the various presentations given at the Funding Forum itself. Visit the University Funding Article Series here.

UNIVERSITIES have slammed a federal government decision not to increase their funding as a lost opportunity to boost productivity and economic growth.
Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans responded today to the 2011 higher education base funding review by pointing to the “unprecedented investment” Labor had made in universities since 2007.
“Given the record investment in recurrent and capital funding for our universities made by this government, there will be no further general increase in base funding at this stage,” Senator Evans said in a statement.
He cited an Ernst & Young report which last year found that funding per student place had grown by 10 per cent with Labor's increased investment.
Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said the government's response was a “disappointing dismissal” of the report's call for increased funding. Read more...

By Emma Graney. As school divisions and post-secondary institutions scramble to cater to the increasing number of students looking toward the skilled trades and natural resources sectors, the provincial government has its own plan.
It has poured $3.5 billion into post-secondary education since 2008 and, says Advanced Education Minster Don Morgan, the Saskatchewan Party will continue to focus on health sciences and "areas of economic growth."
Put simply, that's the natural resources sector, which has brought billions of dollars into the province in recent years, and it's the related academic courses that will benefit.
"That's certainly the direction we're going," Morgan says. It's all outlined in the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth, which details the government's roadmap for getting to 2020 and 1.2 million residents. Read more...

Between the Christmas spending spree and the wait for your student loan to appear, the New Year is a perfect time to make some financial resolutions, says David Ellis.
The New Year is a curious beast. While it leaves most buoyed with a renewed, temporary sense of purpose, for students the first days of January are characterised by two things: obsessive checking of the bank balance; and a feeling in the stomach like it’s attempting an escape through the mouth. Waiting for the student loan to appear and guiltily trying to forget that overspend (curses on that generous, present-giving streak you have) means many fall into an unauthorised overdraft – and brutal bank charges which can blight the next few months. David Ellis is editor of studentmoneysaver.co.uk. Read more...

Current and future Erasmus students can be reassured: Member States and the European Parliament have averted a funding crisis which threatened the popular exchange scheme after a last-ditch agreement which has enabled the EU to plug a shortfall in the 2012 budget and remove uncertainty about funding for 2013.
Thanks to the agreement, the Commission will be able to provide around 280 000 Erasmus student grants in the 2013-2014 academic year. The agreement also avoids problems for other exchange schemes run under the Lifelong Learning Programme (Leonardo for apprentices, Comenius for schools, Grundtvig for adult education), which enable young people and teaching staff to broaden their skills and career prospects through study or training in a foreign country. The budget deal also lifts uncertainty surrounding the Marie Curie Actions which support the international mobility of researchers.
The outcome of the negotiations was welcomed by Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. "I am very happy that the Member States and the parliamentarians reached an agreement which is a big boost for Erasmus students and other beneficiaries of our programmes. It is a positive signal that Europe is committed to investing in education and skills."
The agreement, formally approved today by the European Parliament after a green light from Member States last week, wipes out a €180 million shortfall in the 2012 budget for the Lifelong Learning Programme; the shortage affecting Erasmus amounted to around €90 million out of this total. The agreement means that the Commission can now transfer necessary funds to the national agencies which are responsible for running Erasmus in the Member States. The agencies will then release funds to beneficiaries of the programme, including the home universities and colleges which pay the monthly grants to students.
The Council and the European Parliament have also reached an agreement on the 2013 EU budget which means around €500 million for Erasmus and €1 015 million for the Lifelong Learning Programme as a whole.
Erasmus accounts for more than 40% of the Lifelong Learning programme budget. Nearly 90% of the Erasmus budget is invested in student and staff mobility.
Background
Across all EU programmes, the 2012 budget faced a €9 billion shortfall. Under today's agreement, the European Parliament and the Council have agreed to provide a €6 billion top-up now to pay the most pressing needs, with the rest (€2.9 bn) to be paid in 2013. For most beneficiaries such as Erasmus students, researchers and businesses, this means that everything that should have been paid in 2012 will be paid in 2012. The funding held over until next year will cover bills for structural funds' projects, in particular those subject to payment suspensions.
The European Parliament and the Council also agreed on a total budget of €132.8 billion for 2013. This is €5 billion below the Commission's proposal, which was based on estimates from the 27 Member States themselves. With the extra held over from 2012, the Commission fears that the EU will face another budget shortfall next autumn.
The bulk of the EU budget in 2013 will be spent on supporting economic development and competitiveness in Member States (35.5% is allocated to the cohesion policy) and support for farmers (33.1% goes to the Common Agricultural Policy). Funding for Erasmus amounts to around 0.4% of the total budget.