Wales scraps part-time postgraduate support
Wales scraps part-time postgraduate support
Support for part-time postgraduate study has been scrapped due to a reduced budget this year, the body in charge of funding Welsh universities has said.
The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) has announced how it will allocate £132m of public money, with research and part-time undergraduate provision set to be given priority.
HEFCW received a reduced overall budget of £11m from the Welsh Government this year, which although was less than originally feared was still not enough to continue support for part- time postgraduate study.
Scrapping support for part-time postgraduate study — which received £6.5m last year — was one of the outcomes of a lower budget settlement, it said. Furthermore, the Funding Council has warned of the increasing cost of the student tuition fee grant could also impact future higher education funding.
As well as funding from HEFCW, universities receive student tuition fees of up to £9,000 per student, which include more than £5,000 per year through the tuition fee grant for Welsh students. HEFCW’s budget from the Welsh Government has dropped as the tuition fee grant payments have increased.
It is estimated tuition fee grants will cost the Welsh government £237 million in 2016–17.
But it has told HEFCW that it might withhold another £21m of its budget if the cost exceeds this sum.
For the next academic year HEFCW allocated:
- £80m for research
- £27m for part-time undergraduate courses
- £15m for higher cost full time courses in medicine, dentistry and the performing arts
- £6m for Welsh language provision through the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol
Dr David Blaney, chief executive of HEFCW, said: “Using HEFCW funding, universities and other higher education providers can continue to ensure part-time courses are as accessible as possible by keeping the cost down.
“These courses must continue to be an attractive option for students whose circumstances are not suited to a full-time course.
“Research funding accounts for over 60% of our total allocation and, as the largest public investor in research in Wales, we are pleased that we can continue to provide universities with this critical research funding.
“The increasing cost of the tuition fee grant may impact further on these funding allocations.
“The findings of Professor Sir Ian Diamond’s independent review of higher education funding and student finance arrangements will be critical to informing a future policy that provides a sustainable balance of investment between Welsh students and Welsh higher education providers.”
In response, Dr Gavin Boyce Chair of the UKCGE Postgraduate Funding Working Group said,
“The sustainability of the way in which Welsh students are funded was questioned last year by Universities Wales. HEFCW’s decision to cut support for part-time postgraduates can perhaps be seen as an obvious consequence of the reduced budget available this year from the Welsh Government and the latter’s stated focus on ‘investment in young people’.”
“It will be interesting to see what impact this change has on the number of individuals who seek to improve their qualifications whilst in employment, it would be a shame if this decision were to generate demand-side pressure to reduce the flexibility of education provision when providers in the sector are striving to ensure diversity of provision in order to improve access to Higher Education.”
Links
Original Article (bbc.co.uk)
UKCGE Postgraduate Funding Working Group
