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<p>The Strategic Priorities Grant, formerly referred to as the Teaching Grant, plays
an important role in supporting providers and students to develop the skills and knowledge
needed locally, regionally, and nationally to support the economy.</p><p>We have asked
the Office for Students (OfS) to reform the Grant for 2021-22. These reforms include
the reallocation of high-cost subject funding towards the provision of high-cost subjects
that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy, high-cost science, technology, and
engineering subjects, and subjects meeting specific labour market needs.</p><p>One
of our proposals is for a 50% reduction in the rate of high-cost subject funding,
which is one element of the wider Strategic Priorities Grant, for some subjects in
order to enable this reprioritisation.</p><p>Under current proposals, outlined in
the OfS’ consultation on recurrent funding for 2021/22, the high-cost subject funding
rate for students on music courses (CAH25-02-02) will be set at £121.50 in 2021/22,
down from £243 in 2020/21. This fall is equivalent to a reduction of around 1% in
combined funding from a £9,250 tuition fee and OfS funding. Music students will also
attract other elements of OfS funding, such as funding for student access and success,
which is unrelated to the subject they study.</p><p>The OfS’ methodology for calculating
funding allocations, which are done at subject price group-level rather than on an
individual subject basis, means that the total amount of high-cost subject funding
cannot be calculated for individual subjects such as music. However, illustrative
modelling performed by the OfS on funding allocations, which accompanied their consultation,
calculated that the total amount of funding for C1.2 subjects, which includes performing
arts, creative arts, media studies and archaeology, decreased from £36 million in
academic year 2020/21 to £19 million in academic year 2021/22. We have asked the OfS
to invest an additional £10 million in our world-leading specialist providers. Many
of these specialise in arts provision such as the Royal College of Music or the Royal
Academy of Music which are both world-leading institutions for music education. We
want to ensure that our specialist providers receive additional support, and that
grant funding is used to effectively support students.</p>
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