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INKYFLASH: HEFCE GRANT ANNOUNCEMENT
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Issue 281a Friday 5 march 1999
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HEFCE ANNOUNCES RECURRENT GRANTS FOR 1999-2000
Largest percentage increases go to the Further Education sector
Mixed messages for Lancaster
Other news: Death, Secretary, Ruskin leaking, room vacancies
THE RECURRENT GRANTS FOR THE NEXT ACADEMIC YEAR were announced by
Higher Education Funding Council (England) yesterday. In total there is
claimed to be a 2.4 percent increase over last year's figures.
Announcements are still to be made about the results of competitive
bidding for additional funded places.
Lancaster's total resource will rise by only 1.5 percent. This
disappointing figure includes 19m of teaching funding and 10.8m of
research funding. It represents a total (government-funded) resource of
36.1m, with our maximum authorised undergraduate home and EU student
numbers fixed at 6 019.
Once allowance has been made for the new method of calculating these
numbers, this means our present MASN (maximum aggregate student
numbers) is so far essentially unchanged. We still have hopes of some
fully funded extra places from the bidding process.
Only modest percentage financial increases are also awarded to a
number of other distinguished institutions, including Bath (1.0),
Birkbeck (1.0), Birmingham (0.9), Exeter (0.5), Manchester (1.8),
Middlesex (0.5), OU (1.3), QMWC (0.5), Reading (1.5), TVU (0.5),
Warwick (1.4), York (1.4), London Business School (0.6), SOAS (0.5),
Institute of Education (0.5).
Edgehill (4 263 funded places) gets a 2.7 percent increase and Central
Lancs 3.1 percent (11 600 funded places).
Clear winners are to be found mainly in the college sector, with a
15.5 percent increase to the Royal Veterinary College. Congratulations
to St Martin's which comes 2nd with a 9.9 percent increase (4 583
funded places) and Cumbria College of Art and Design (7.6 percent
increase, 688 places).
Other places that deviate significantly from the mean include Brunel
(4.8), Derby (4.2), Goldsmiths (4.5), Greenwich (4.8), Imperial (4.7),
KCL (5.1), Luton (5.8), Southampton (4.5), North Riding College (5.7),
King Alfred's Winchester (5.0) and UCL (6.1).
These changes are the product of numerous slight alterations in the
formula and circumstances, but clearly implement the government's
stated intention to favour increasing access and part time students.
The announcement additionally claimed:
" A total of £75 million has been set aside for 45,000 additional
student numbers which will be funded at the full rate.
In allocating additional funded student numbers priority has been
given to institutions demonstrating high quality and a commitment to
widening participation. An announcement of the allocations following a
bidding process will be made later this month.
HEFCE will be funding nearly 200 more further education colleges
offering courses of higher education
HEFCE will be providing additional funding to help institutions widen
participation and support students from under-represented groups
The grant will maintain stability. The real terms reduction in core
recurrent funding per student will be less than 1 per cent, as
recommended in the Dearing Report."
OTHER NEWS
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MRS EILEEN WHITE died on Monday 1st March after less than a week in St
John's Hospice. She was one of the Management School Cleaning staff for
over 20 years. Her funeral will be at St Thomas's Church, Penny St.,
Lancaster Monday 8th March at 2.00 p.m. Her husband Derek helps in the
Management School restaurant. She also leaves her mother, two daughters
and 5 grandchildren. All sympathy to Mrs White's family and friends.
SECRETARIAL APPOINTMENT: Plausible rumours started circulating in
University House on Tuesday. There are said to be seven on the
shortlist, three of them women and only one an internal candidate.
After presentatations next week, four will be invited back for
interview the following Saturday.
It is now understood that there were at least three internal
applications for the post. Some talk of about 43 applicants and the
field, geographically spread from the northernmost to the southernmost
university, has been described as of high quality. Still doubts about
which sub-group of the appointing committee actually SAW all the
applications and drew up the short-list.
RUSKIN IN THE RAIN: the recent heavy rainfall has yet again caused
problems in the roof area of the Ruskin Library. The points of ingress
and the reasons for their existence are proving hard to identify. They
seem to be at each of the four 'angled' points of the complex roof
structure.
RUMOURS OF UP TO 200 VACANT ROOMS on campus and at Chancellor's Wharf.
If true, this figure represents a weekly shortfall on budgeted income
of around 8K, which amounts to worrying sums by the summer. Rent
negotiations for next year begin on March 12th, chaired for the first
time by new Pro-VC Alan Whitaker. The main cause is thought to be the
difficulty of reletting rooms vacated by JYAs who come for the first
semester only. The second half of our year is less attractive to
international students given the small number of courses, outside the
sciences, taught in the summer term.
ENDS
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