John Blake, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students (OfS), explores the role and purpose of OfS funding. The OfS wants to hear how our current approach should develop to continue to support a high quality educational experience for students into the future.
As the higher education landscape changes, so should the OfS’s approach to distributing the funding that underpins the teaching students receive, the courses they study and the facilities in which they learn.
At present, the OfS distributes,each year, around £1.4 billion, granted to us by government throughthe Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG). We do this work as the latest in a long line of intermediate bodies between higher education providers and the government, starting with the University Grants Committee (UGC) way back in 1919. The UGC supported all aspects of higher education, but when OfS was formed, research funding became the responsibility of UKRI and we kept the role of funding agency with regard to teaching and related activities at universities and colleges registered in the Approved (fee cap) category with the OfS. We also distribute capital funding to support the building and renovation of facilities, including laboratories, specialist teaching suites and lecture halls, to support students’ education. We recently allocated £450 million of capital funding for the 2022-23 to 2024-25 financial years.
These are substantial sums of public money. The cash is provided to the OfS by government, to support strategically important work in higher education. It is important this investment is distributed and used in the most effective and efficient way to ensure universities and colleges are providing students with a high quality educational experience.
