Grants announced for universities and colleges
Grants are made annually to support student access and academic experience and play an important role in ensuring that high-quality, cost-effective higher education is available across the country.
The £1.2 billion allocated in recurrent grants to universities and colleges comprises:
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£900 million to support the delivery of high-cost courses
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£273 million for student access and success
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£53 million funding for specialist providers including a number of world-leading institutions delivering courses in the performing and creative arts.
In addition to this, the OfS has also confirmed it will allocate:
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£150 million capital funding to help universities and colleges to invest in their physical infrastructure – most of this will be allocated through a separate bidding exercise
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£40 million to the Uni Connect outreach programme
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£21 million for national facilities and regulatory initiatives, for example projects to support student mental health.
These grant allocations implement the decisions on changes to the OfS funding method confirmed last week. They reflect the funding allocated to the OfS by the government and terms and conditions applied by the Secretary of State.
The OfS’s total recurrent funding budget (excluding capital grants) for universities and colleges this year is £1.27 billion – an increase of £10 million (0.8 per cent) compared with the total originally announced for 2020-21. This must support an increase of nearly 83,000 (7 per cent) in full-time equivalent student numbers.
Allocations for each provider have also been published by the OfS. The average rate of funding varies across the sector depending on the different student populations and activities at each university or college.
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