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<p>Changes to the Student Finance system weredesigned to meet the Government's aims
of increased dynamism and student choice. If the Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HEFCE) recurrent grant for teaching and the estimated fee income from
students subject to regulated fees is combined, the overall Higher Education Institution
resource from teaching actually rises from around £7.9 billion in 2011-12 to almost
£8.5 billion in 2013-14. It has the potential to reach £9.9billion in 2015-16 dependant
on recruitment.</p><p> </p><p>BIS has asked HEFCE to monitor the impact of the Higher
Education (HE) reforms introduced in 2012 to assess the effect of changes. In March
2013, HEFCE published their first update “Higher Education – Impact of the 2012 reforms”.
This is available online at:</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/about/intro/abouthighereducationinengland/impact"
target="_blank">http://www.hefce.ac.uk/about/intro/abouthighereducationinengland/impact</a>/</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>This was followed a year later by an updated report entitled
“Higher Education in England 2014” published on 10 April 2014. This provides an overview
of recent shifts and longer-term trends in publicly-funded higher education and considers
possible further changes and continuities in the year ahead. This is available online
at: <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/heinengland/2014/" target="_blank">http://www.hefce.ac.uk/heinengland/2014/</a></p><p>
</p><p>Analysts in my Department also monitor the impact of any changes to funding
methods for Higher Education using leading data on applications for places. The latest
application figures published by UCAS inJanuary 2014show that young people have not
been put off applying to university. The application rate for young people from England
has risen to 34.8% this year, the highest ever.</p><p> </p><p>In Further Education,
while the budget for adult skills has reduced, savings have been made in a way that
protects the vulnerable and supports economic growth, ensuring that Government funding
provides value for money. Overall funding for adult further education and skills is
£4.1bn in 2014-15 financial year; of that £3.4bn will be granted to the Skills Funding
Agency to support learners.</p><p> </p><p>Because of the reforms we have put in place,
more learners are taught today than under the last policy:</p><p> </p><p>· Over 1
million adult learners have participated in government-funded English and maths training
in each of the last two years - higher than in previous years.</p><p>· In 2012/13,
there were 973,000 learners participating in Full Level 2 courses (similar to 2008/09),
and 495,000 learners participating in Full Level 3 courses (up 16.8% on 2008/09).</p><p>·
There were 869,000 funded Apprentices participating in 2012/13 - almost double the
number in 2008/09.</p><p>· Advanced Learning Loans have been successfully introduced,
encouraging 60,000 people to apply to take training courses at Level 3 and above.</p><p>
</p><p>An evaluation published in October 2013 - based on a survey of nearly 500 colleges
and providers - showed that there is strong support in the sector for the overall
aims and objectives of the reforms. This report - 'Further education and skills reform
plan 'New Challenges, New Chances': evaluation' - is published at the link below:</p><p><a
title="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-and-skills-reform-plan-new-challenges-new-chances-evaluation"
href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-and-skills-reform-plan-new-challenges-new-chances-evaluation"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-and-skills-reform-plan-new-challenges-new-chances-evaluation</a></p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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