Recommendations: 2, 3, 4, 5(part), 76(part), 6

Recommendation 2: We recommend to the Government and the Funding Bodies that, when allocating funds for the expansion of higher education, they give priority to those institutions which can demonstrate a commitment to widening participation, and have in place a participation strategy, a mechanism for monitoring progress, and provision for review by the governing body of achievement.

1.3 In accordance with this recommendation, the Higher Education Funding Councils for England and Wales have been asked in their grant letters for 1998-99 to give priority in funding additional places to those institutions which can demonstrate a commitment to widening access. The Scottish Office guidance letter to the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council asked it to consider the additional costs to institutions of wider access policies and the funding of special initiatives in Scotland; and to undertake a survey of wider access in Scotland and to work with partners in developing a national strategy. The Government will monitor the impact of its policies for widening access.

Recommendation 3: We recommend that, with immediate effect, the bodies responsible for funding further and higher education in each part of the UK collaborate and fund – possibly jointly – projects designed to address low expectations and achievement and to promote progression to higher education.

Recommendation 4: We recommend that the Funding Bodies consider financing, over the next two to three years, pilot projects which allocate additional funds to institutions which enrol students from particularly disadvantaged localities.

1.4 The Government supports these recommendations. The more our schools strategy succeeds in boosting educational attainment, the better the chances for all social groups to enter higher education. The Government intends to encourage better links between schools in disadvantaged areas and universities or colleges, so that young people from families without a background of higher education have more support and encouragement to stay in education after 16. It welcomes the work by the National Union of Students, along with other student groups, on mentoring arrangements, as a way of promoting access to higher education. 1.5 In England the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils will work together to develop and launch suitable joint projects. The HEFCE has allocated £2m in 1998/99 and £4m in 1999/2000 to support widening access and participation projects. In Wales the Higher Education Funding Council has been asked to set aside £1m to provide funding to encourage collaboration and strengthen links between the further and higher education sectors, to promote access, and to develop "community universities" as part of the Government’s lifelong learning agenda.

Recommendation 5 (part): We recommend to the Government that: the total available to institutions for Access Funds should be doubled with effect from 1998/99 and that the scope of the funds should be extended to facilitate participation by students who would otherwise be unable to enter higher education.

Recommendation 76 (part): We recommend to the Government that: the total available to institutions for Access Funds should be doubled with effect from 1998/99 and that the scope of the funds should be extended to facilitate participation by students who would otherwise be unable to enter higher education.

1.6 The funding available for Higher Education Access Funds in 1998/99 will be doubled and eligibility will be extended to part-time students. The Government believes that the Funds’ priority should continue to be to help students in difficulty with their living costs, but agrees that in certain circumstances the Funds could be used to facilitate participation by those who would otherwise be deterred from entering higher education. The eligibility criteria for the use of the Funds are currently being revised, in consultation with the Higher Education Funding Councils, the National Union of Students and others. The Students Awards Agency for Scotland will consider the Scottish Committee’s recommendation that access funds should be distributed to institutions on the basis of student need. The other parts of both these recommendations are addressed in Chapter 10.

Recommendation 6: We recommend: to the Funding Bodies that they provide funding for institutions to provide learning support for students with disabilities; to the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (see Recommendation 14) that it includes the learning needs of students with disabilities in its research, programme accreditation and advisory activities; to the Government that it extends the scope of the Disabled Students Allowance so that it is available without a parental means test and to part-time students, postgraduate students and those who have become disabled who wish to obtain a second higher education qualification.

1.7 The Higher Education Funding Councils have been asked to continue to have regard to the needs of people with disabilities and the need to fund institutions to provide learning support for people with disabilities. The Government would expect the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, once established, to address the particular needs of students with disabilities in all aspects of its work. The ending of means-testing of the Disabled Students’ Allowance for full-time students was announced in September 1997. The position of disabled part-time students, postgraduates and those wishing to obtain a second qualification is still under consideration.

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