The
Higher Education Funding Council for England
(HEFCE) is a non-departmental public body of
the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills (previously the Department
for Innovation, Universities and Skills) in the United Kingdom
, which has been responsible for the distribution of
funding to Universities and Colleges of Higher and Further Education in
England
since 1992. It was created by the
Further and Higher
Education Act 1992.
In 2007-08 HEFCE allocated £7.1 billion in public funds from the UK
Government to universities andcolleges in England to "support them
in delivering high quality education, research and related
activities".It only funds the institutions and does not give grants
or loans to individual students.It also helps develop and implement
higher education policy, based on research and consultation.
It is
based in Northavon House, on the outskirts of north Bristol
on the
campus of the University of the West of
England
. Around 250 people are based in the
building, including employees of HEFCE,
JISC,
the
Office for Fair Access,
and the
Research Assessment
Exercise (RAE).
In addition to distributing both teaching and research funding to
higher education institutions HEFCE is also involved with:
widening participation; developing
links between higher education institutions and business and the
community; and enhancing leadership, governance and management
within the sector. It provides both a contribution to core funding,
and ring-fenced funding for special initiatives, projects and
strategic aims.
The Chief
Executive of HEFCE is Sir Alan
Langlands (since 1 April 2009), previously Vice-Chancellor of
the University of
Dundee
and former chief executive of the NHS. His predecessor,
Professor David Eastwood is now the
Vice-Chancellor of the University of
Birmingham
.
The organisation itself is organised into three directorates, each
comprising of policy and regional teams.
HEFCE also owns the Unistats website
[70337] which
contains the student satisfaction ratings for different
universities and subjects. These satisfaction ratings are compiled
from the National Student Survey
[70338], and
the feedback from students is held within the Unistats website and
allows students to compare subjects, universities and UCAS points,
see satisfaction ratings from other students and see what the
employment prospects are for graduate jobs by subject chosen.
Initiatives
HEFCE currently supports five teaching initiatives:
- Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)
- Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL)
- Higher Education
Academy
- National Teaching Fellowship Scheme
- Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP)
The provision of funding for Centres for Excellence in Teaching and
Learning (CETL) arose from consultations held in 2003. The CETL
initiative is designed to reward excellent teaching practice,
develop that excellence through further research, and disseminate
and embed teaching excellence in both the institution and the wider
Higher Education sector. There are currently 74 centres across the
UK and the initiative represents HEFCE's largest ever single
funding initiative in teaching and learning with the provision of
£350 million over a five year period.
A Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL) was
established in 1995 with the intention of stimulating good teaching
and learning practice in Higher Education. Assessment for fund
eligibility is undertaken by a teaching quality assessment
exercise, and over 164 projects have been given an award since
1995.
The
Higher Education
Academy, founded in May 2004, is funded by HEFCE and was
established as the result of a merger of the
Institute
for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (ILTHE), the
Learning and
Teaching Support Network (LTSN), and the
TQEF National Co-ordination
Team (NCT).
HEFCE also
funds a National
Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) for those working in England and Northern
Ireland
. The initiative is administered by the
Higher Education Academy
and has two separate strands providing individual awards -
recognising individual excellence in teaching within the Higher
Education sector - and awards for large-scale projects typically
undertaken by Higher Education institutions over periods of up to
three years.
Finally, HEFCE supports the Teaching and Learning Research
Programme which aims to promote excellent educational research
designed to enhance learning.
References
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