The Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) Have Announced that £6.7 billion Will be Made Available In 2007-08. (March 3, 2007)

         The Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) announced that funding for higher education in England would rise by almost 6% this year while £6.7 billion would be made available next year.

The British Labour government has set as a goal having half of young people in higher education.  It's an "economic and social necessity" according to Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell.

Currently the proportion of young people is estimated to be 42.5%, and is predicted to rise to 43% next year. The government has set 2010 to be the year to reach 50% but the funding council for England predicts that it will not be met unless there is an increase in funding allocations.

Nevertheless, although there had been concerns that there would be no substantial rise in higher education funding this year, since UK universities will gain increased revenue from variable tuition fees for the first time from September, funding for teaching will rise by 6.3% to £4,228 - and there will be an increase of 8.5% for capital funding, including research equipment.

The Acting chief executive of Hefce, Steve Egan says the additional resources will help institutions meet one of the "biggest challenges" facing higher education - recruitment and retention of under-represented groups. The settlement will also provide an extra £98 million to provide extra student places, of which £18m is for new medical and dental students.

A spokesperson for Universities UK said the settlement would go some way towards enabling institutions to pursue objectives of widening participation, engaging in world-class research and raising student numbers. "Universities are fully committed to making higher education open to all and we're pleased that additional funding has been made available."