10 August 2006
Institutions may need to update their access agreements for 2007-08 onwards in light of inflationary uplifts to fee levels and maintenance grants to be announced in September 2006.
As you will know, each year the Government announces, in Regulations, an inflationary amount that can be applied to the fee rate. This will impact on the levels of bursaries that need to be provided*. This will affect access agreements as, although agreements last for a period of up to five years, there is a legal obligation upon institutions to have an up to date access agreement at all times.
Many institutions have already referred to annual inflationary increases in their access agreements, allowing the agreement to remain up to date following these annual announcements. However, to avoid any unnecessary bureaucracy we will assume that every institution intends to apply the announced inflationary uplift to its fee and bursary schemes.
Therefore, institutions only need to tell us if they do not intend to apply the uplift to their fee or bursary schemes, or if they wish to restructure their access agreements for future years**
Reviewing access agreements
Given that access agreements must remain up to date, institutions may also wish to take the opportunity to review their agreements more generally to make sure that all details are correct and that the wording is broad enough to allow flexibility in the operation of the agreement, without the need for regular updating with OFFA. There are a number of instances where this could be useful. For example:
- Including wording that fees and bursaries will be subject to the annual inflationary increase announced by the Government, would ensure that the intentions of the agreement are clear.
- Where bursary schemes are based on Government income threshold levels for state support, including wording that these will increase in line with any Government announcements would ensure the intentions of the agreement are clear.
- Where specific courses and types of qualifications have been listed institutions may want to change wording to relate to ‘all courses’ in the relevant category. This allows for new courses, or franchise provision, to be covered rather than having to amend agreements for any new addition.
- Details on administrative arrangements may also benefit from a broadening of terms, or the inclusion of a sentence which says that rules are subject to change to ensure there are no technical breaches of agreements. For example, payment dates for bursaries might include a caveat that these are indicative and can be altered at the institution’s discretion.
Institutional title changes and mergers
If they have not already done so, institutions that have merged or have received University status should now update their access agreement to reflect their new title.
Any amended agreement should be sent to accessagreements@offa.org.uk. If you have any queries about whether changes are required please contact Chris Scrase, enquiries@offa.org.uk or tel 0117 931 7171
Notes
* We expect that the announcement of fee and grant uplift for 2007-08 will be made in September 2006. OFFA will also confirm the minimum bursary level at this time. We expect that subsequent announcements will be made in July of each year
** Institutions are required to apply the uplift to the minimum bursary each year to ensure that no gap is created between the fee charged and the maximum maintenance grant available. There is no requirement to uplift bursary amounts above the minimum requirement (unless the access agreement commits to this), but institutions may wish to do so if they intend to ensure that the value of their student support is not eroded over time. Institutions are also reminded that they will need to ensure that any franchise partners covered by their access agreement are notified of any changes to their commitments under the agreement as a result of inflationary uplift.