The government should redistribute more than £500 million from university funds to FE colleges to allow all young people equal access to further study, according to a new report.
The report by thinktank Policy Exchange suggests that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) should ringfence £532 million from HE funds in the next spending review to create a universal student and maintenance loan for FE students. It argues that this would mean that, for the first time, all young people would have equal access to finance to support further study, whether at a university or FE provider.
The report suggests the funds could come from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), which distributes public funds to universities.
Since 2009, HE institutions have enjoyed increased funding and now sit on financial reserves of £12.3 billion, the report says. FE providers, however, have seen the adult skills budget cut by 24 per cent since 2009-10. Last month, TES revealed that more than 200 colleges were expected to end up in financial difficulty as a result of further cuts likely to be announced next month.
Jonathan Simons, Policy Exchange’s head of education, said: “It is clear that higher education is significantly better funded than its further education counterpart. Universities have substantial cash reserves which could be much better utilised than sitting in banks. We think a proportion of the government grant to universities should be reallocated towards offering more students higher level technical qualifications at further education institutions.”
John Widdowson, president of the Association of Colleges, called on the government to “step up to the plate to ensure that the further education sector has the funding it so desperately needs to enable colleges to tackle the massive skills challenges faced by this country”.
A Bis spokesperson declined to comment on the specific proposals but said that “both higher and further education play a crucial role in the provision of professional and technical education at all levels”.
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