DfE announces £3.9 million sustainability contract
The Department for Education (DfE) is proposing to task a consultant organisation to support schools' and colleges' climate change strategies. The two-year contract will cost up to £3.9 million.
Last year the DfE announced that every education setting would need to nominate a 'sustainability lead' by 2025. The selected consultant will now 'identify appropriate experts' to support the sustainability leads.
The contract will include:
Recruiting a team of expert 'volunteers' to provide advice.
Setting up 'Sustainability Hubs' to support institutions and allow 'peer-to-peer learning'.
The DfE is not yet ready to invite bids but says that this early notification means "some dialogue may be possible." The DfE says it will approach the market on 11 May, with the two-year contract starting in July.
Under a separate £840,000 contract, also running from July 2023 to 2025, the DfE is looking to hire a team to design an online ‘sustainability leadership in education’ support hub. The hub will offer education settings guidance, information and “capability” to embed climate change and sustainability.
Making Further Ed & Higher Ed work (together)
This week, at a time of increasing financial uncertainty in the tertiary education sector, we saw two valuable contributions.
David Hughes, (on wonkhe.com) Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, offered us:
Meanwhile, in the Financial Times, Minouche Shafik, president and vice-chancellor of the London School of Economics, offers us: How to fix the UK's higher and further education finance system.
University Finance Since 2012
Most readers will be aware that universities in England generate most of their income from three sources: tuition fees paid by students, research funding, and donations. Of course, nowadays, tuition fees are underpinned by a student loan scheme.
In 2012 more students than ever aspired to go to university. At that time, in response to increased financial pressure on HE, David Cameron's austerity-led coalition government authorised a significant hike in university fees. This move was financed by expanding the student loan scheme, putting the extra debt onto students. In this way, the Government solved a problem while continuing to control public finances tightly. Universities were initially unsure of the consequences. However, once it became clear that most prospective students were not put off, much higher fees meant much higher income.
Construction consultants and contractors were also pleased! Universities invested to create more attractive estates and ensure each got their share of the action.
Further Education College Finance Since 2010
English FE Colleges focus primarily on vocational and technical education (except for A-levels in Sixth-Form Colleges). Unlike Universities, the Government funds colleges via the Education and Skills Funding Agency. The 'ESFA' is an executive of the Department for Education. Colleges can get income from commercial training, but typically this is a small proportion of turnover.
This government-funded arrangement is long-standing and meant that the same austerity-led Government offered limited support to Colleges. Apparently, alongside the cost-cutting mentality also lay some antipathy. Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, claimed his officials wanted to axe all English and Welsh FE Colleges. Cable says he blocked the move, despite being told by (no doubt university-educated) civil servants that nobody will really notice.
Later, mercifully, college funding transferred from the Business Department to the ESFA. Even so, between 2010 and 2019, the FE sector's income shrunk by over £1 billion in real terms. This reduction would indicate a dying and unsustainable industry in any other walk of life. Yet this sector still attempts to prepare around 50% of young people for the world of work.
The FE sector has found efficiencies (mergers have seen more than a third of independent colleges vanish). Yet, many colleges now face a financial crisis, despite their employees being paid less than those in similar posts in schools or universities. Hughes writes...
our estimate is that in 2022/23, £23.3bn has [been] provided by the Government for HE... some of which will be repaid by students – and around £3.3bn spent on all the rest (Level 3 and below in FE and apprenticeships).
Of course, the above estimate will probably include significant HE research grants. Nevertheless, the vast discrepancy highlights the emphasis society places on educating one-half of society compared to the rest.
Solutions to Problems
In 2019, Sir Philip Augar published his report on Tertiary Education Funding. Hughes notes that the opening paragraph of Augar's report got to the heart of the matter.
Post-18 (or 'tertiary') education in England is a story of both care and neglect, depending on whether students are amongst the 50 per cent of young people who participate in higher education (HE) or the rest. The panel believes that this disparity simply has to be addressed. Doing so is a matter of fairness and equity and is likely to bring considerable social and economic benefits to individuals and the country at large. It is our core message.
Hughes notes there has been some, but not nearly enough, progress on Augar's recommendations. One proposal was that Universities should charge less for undergraduate courses. This proposal has been more than implemented; freezing maximum tuition fees during significant cost inflation has significantly reduced income in real terms. Of course, this was only ever meant to be one half of the story; in real terms, expenditure on FE is falling as well.
There has been some progress on other recommendations. For example, a bill supporting a lifelong loan allowance for short courses as well as degrees, which learners could use throughout their lives, is currently being scrutinised by Parliament.
There are plenty of examples where progress on Augar falls well short. The assertion that FE colleges collectively require £1 billion per year to support capital expenditure (including estates) triggered a response. However, MabelSpace estimates that total capital support between 2020 and 2025 looks to be only around 60% of this recommendation. Also, we estimate that around 20% of this sum will be spent on just sixteen 'poor estates' colleges. These are not the only colleges with poor estates. The DfE selected the sixteen so that they could act as pathfinder projects for a new DfE construction procurement method. There are likely to be at least another 16 colleges with equally legitimate claims for support.
Hughes' big call is for a single integrated tertiary education system. That system would deliver a new post-18 education and skills strategy. That strategy should allow every adult to be supported to attain and maintain the skills they will need throughout their lives.
A strategy which will set national priorities for sectors where most change will happen – green skills, construction, engineering, digital, health and care – and show how Government investment will encourage employer investment.
Meanwhile, Minouche Shafik (FT) points out that, whilst recognising the 'dire' privations of the FE sector, all is no longer well for our universities.
On affordability, the finances of the university sector are increasingly unsustainable. Tuition fees have been frozen at £9,250 for six years (about £6,500 in today's money). In the last academic year, English universities lost £1,750 for every UK student they educated.
In summary, many universities remain solvent thanks to the very-high tuition fees international students pay.
Shafik calls for politicians of all parties to support an independent review of the financial issues facing tertiary education. This is urgent, a review should happen before the next general election.
Minouche Shafik: How to fix the UK's higher and further education finance system.