The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) has today (Thursday 20 October 2011) published new guidelines for English universities and colleges wanting to revise their 2012-13 access agreement due to the government’s proposed changes to student number controls for 2012-13. On Monday (17 October), following consultation with the sector, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) announced the process by which universities and colleges can bid for an allocation of the 20,000 places that will be available under the new ‘core and margin’ system.
In a guidance note, OFFA tells universities and colleges that it will not approve any changes for 2012-13 that reduce the overall level of financial support to students in existing agreements. OFFA also requires all universities and colleges that succeed in revising their agreement to:
- contact all students who have already applied to let them know of the changes to their financial support package
- give students who have applied for courses with a UCAS deadline of 15 October (e.g. medicine) the choice of staying with the package that was on offer when they applied or switching to their revised package.
To date, 28 universities and colleges have expressed an interest in revising their access agreement to reduce their average fee to £7,500 or below. Eight of these have already submitted revised agreements to OFFA. The wish by institutions to reduce their average fee by, for example, lowering fee levels or increasing fee waivers, follows the ‘core and margin’ proposals announced by the Government in its higher education White Paper – published after OFFA’s April 2011 deadline for submitting 2012-13 access agreements.
OFFA’s guidance states that universities that are considering reducing their outreach or retention spend will need to persuade OFFA that this will not affect their ability to make progress towards their targets and milestones.
Director for Fair Access Sir Martin Harris said: “In deciding how to approach revisions to 2012-13 access agreements, we have sought to minimise the impact on applicants. Our resulting guidance makes it clear that applicants must continue to receive the same overall level of financial support – even if the balance changes between bursaries and fee waivers – and must receive sufficient warning of any revised package to enable them to change their university choices, if they so wish, without prejudice before the UCAS deadline of 15 January.
“At the same time, we have been mindful of legal advice that it would be reasonable of us to give universities and colleges a limited opportunity to revise agreements, given that government policy has changed since universities and colleges first submitted their 2012-13 access agreements. We have also been mindful of the risk to access at individual institutions facing a reduction in their student numbers.”
Universities and colleges that wish to revise their 2012-13 access agreement must submit a revised agreement by 4 November and OFFA will aim to inform all institutions of decisions by 30 November. Institutions that are successful in their application must let students who have already applied to them know of any changes to their package within five working days. This will give students more than a month to reconsider their options before the UCAS deadline of 15 January 2012.
Notes to editors
- OFFA’s guidance note ‘Revisions to access agreements for 2012-13’ is available today (20 October 2011) at www.offa.org.uk/guidance-notes/.
- Following consultation with the sector, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) published information on Monday (17 October 2011) on the bidding process under the new ‘core and margin’ system. Details can be found at www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2011/snc.htm
- The ‘core and margin’ system will re-allocate a ‘margin’ of up to 20,000 places in 2012-13 to publicly funded HEIs and FECs that commit to charging an average fee of £7,500 or less (net of fee waivers) and can demonstrate demand and the quality of their provision. Qualifying institutions can bid for an allocation of the places available.
- To date, OFFA has approved 2012-13 access agreements for 141 institutions – 123 higher education institutions and 18 further education colleges. Under the agreements universities and colleges plan to increase investment in access measures to £602 million a year by 2015-16, up from £407 million in 2011-12. This figure rises to £738 million a year when the Government’s contribution to the National Scholarship Programme is included. Under existing access agreements, the estimated sector fee average is £8,393. This reduces to £8,161 when fee waivers are included.
- OFFA published data for those universities and colleges with approved access agreements for 2012-13 in July. This data covers the 139 institutions which for which OFFA had approved agreements by 12 July 2011. Access agreements for two further institutions – London Studio Centre and Warwickshire College – were approved after this list was published.
www.offa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Access-agreement-2012-13-tables-with-intro.pdf - The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) is an independent, non-departmental public body established under the Higher Education Act 2004 to help promote and safeguard fair access to higher education. The main way we do this is by approving and monitoring ‘access agreements’. All English universities and colleges offering full-time (and in future, part-time, subject to Parliamentary approval) undergraduate higher education courses must have an access agreement with us in order to charge higher fees. Access agreements set out the access measures (e.g. outreach or financial support) that universities and colleges will put in place. For more about OFFA, please see our website www.offa.org.uk, particularly the Quick Facts and FAQ in the Press section.
For further information, contact Zita Adamson, Communications Manager at OFFA, on 0117 931 7272 or 0117 931 7171.