Old-system students
Are old-system students (i.e. pre-2012 entrants) included in OFFA’s guideline expectations on spend?
Yes. In order to judge your access agreement on its commitments, expenditure and targets, we will look at your predictions in ‘steady state’ – that is, the point at which the majority of students on three-year degrees are under the new system of fees and student support.
We recognise that spend in transitional years (i.e. years with continuing old-system students) may be above or below our guidelines on what you should spend on access measures depending on your existing commitments. The reason for this is that in transitional years, you will have students under different fee limits, meaning that higher fee income calculations are not the same for all students. This has an impact on how your expenditure relates proportionally to your higher fee income.
For 2015-16, this will be less of an issue because the majority of old-system students will have completed their courses.
For more information, please refer to the latest guidance on drawing up your access agreement, on our publications page.