News and events
2006
18 September
Parliament announces inflationary uplift to fees, loans and grants for 2007
10 August
OFFA guidance note on inflationary increases and updating access agreements
10 July
OFFA guidance on changes to student support for social work courses
28 June
OFFA publishes its Annual Report and Accounts for 2005-06
25 May 2006
Offering places at 'discounted prices' to fill course vacancies would be a risky approach warns OFFA
April 2006
OFFA welcomes DWP disregard of institutional bursaries for benefits purposes
27 April 2006
Latest UCAS application figures remain encouraging
31 March 2006
OFFA guidance on the payment dates of bursaries and scholarships
16 February 2006
Underlying upward trend in UCAS application figures is reassuring says Director of OFFA
2005
15 December 2005
OFFA welcomes UUK/SCOP study on widening participation
OFFA today welcomed the publication of a report highlighting the successes of the higher education sector in improving access for people from families with no experience of higher education
1 December 2005
Dual role for OFFA says Director of Fair Access
Supporting universities and colleges in the delivery of their own plans for fair access as well as carrying out appropriate monitoring, will be two of OFFA's main priorities going forward, according to Sir Martin Harris, Director of OFFA.
28 October 2005
OFFA publishes guidance for School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITTs) providers
Guidance has been published by OFFA to help School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITTs) providers submit their access agreements.
18 October 2005
OFFA welcomes Government announcement on part-time student support
OFFA today welcomed Education Secretary Ruth Kelly's announcement about an increase in statutory fee support for the poorest part-time students.
1 September 2005
OFFA welcomes new student finance section on UCAS web site
10 August 2005
Guidance issued by OFFA in light of recent changes to the income threshold levels for means tested student support in 2006
August 2005
Information note to School-Centred Initial Teacher Training Providers (SCITTs)
[ MS Word 74K |
Adobe PDF 51K ]
20 July 2005
Universities and colleges will need to work alongside public information campaign on student finance
The diverse set of creative financial packages being offered by universities and colleges is a significant step forward in the evolution of student support according to Director of the Office for Fair Access, Sir Martin Harris, but much still remains to be done by institutions to prepare for the changes to next year’s student finance arrangements.
30 June 2005
Universities required to provide bursary support for trainee teachers from low income backgrounds
Institutions charging the maximum tuition fee for postgratuate teacher training will be required to offer the minimum bursary of £300 to those students from the lowest income backgrounds, and some access agreements may now need to change to reflect this.
23 May 2005
Date extended for submission of access agreements for 2007- 08 onwards
Institutions now have up until 31 January 2006 to submit access agreements for 2007-08.
17 March 2005
Hundreds of thousands of students from low income backgrounds set to benefit from over £300 million extra 'free cash' set aside by universities and colleges
Around 400,000 students from low income backgrounds are expected to benefit from £300 million non-repayable cash to support them through university or college it was revealed today by Sir Martin Harris, the Director of the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) as he announced approval of the first 118 access agreements from universities and colleges.
2004
3 December 2004
OFFA seminars help institutions prepare access agreements
A series of OFFA seminars held during November 2004 received a positive response from delegates and raised some interesting issues relating to the production of access agreements. A summary of questions and answers from the seminars is now available on the OFFA web site.
8 November 2004
New Director of Fair Access predicts substantial extra funding will be available to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds
15 October 2004
Charles Clarke appoints Sir Martin Harris as the first Director of Fair Access
Last updated 10 August 2006