Hansard

Higher Education Funding Council

Volume 455: debated on Wednesday 24 January 2007

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Mr. Boris Johnson

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of the Higher Education Funding Council for England's budget was spent on the provision of higher education in further education colleges in each of the last five years. (105520)

Bill Rammell

The following table sets out the percentage of HEFCE’s budget which was spent directly on the provision of Higher Education (HE) in Further Education Colleges (FECs).

Percentage of HEFCE budget paid to directly funded FECs by financial year

As percent of grants to all institutions

As percent of grants to all institutions and other bodies

2001-02

3.1

3.1

2002-03

2.8

2.7

2003-04

2.6

2.5

2004-05

2.5

2.4

2005-06

2.5

2.5

These figures exclude indirectly funded HE provision in FE Colleges financed under franchising arrangements with Higher Education Institutions. While the position varies between individual institutions, FE Colleges have in recent years tended to receive higher than average percentage increases in their budgets as a result of our commitment to increase and widen participation and have benefited from the allocation of Additional Student Numbers and the widening participation premium in the grant distribution formulae adopted by HEFCE as a result.