The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is a non-departmental public body that was established by the government in 1992 to distribute public money to colleges and universities for teaching and research (About the Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2011). The HEFCE mission is to “promote high quality education and research, within a financially healthy sector” (About the Higher Education Funding Council for England). The HEFCE requires those that receive the funding to report back annually, and thus they also ensure accountability and promote good practice.
HEFCE currently offers flexible learning funds in order to meet the needs of a wider range of students and stakeholders (Flexible Learning, 2011). Flexible learning funding can take many shapes, including extended or accelerated study. One of the reports HEFCE funded was in regard to an accelerated two-year honors program. The HEFCE commissioned Liz Hart Associates to look at the cost of higher education institutions offering accelerated honors programs. The purpose of the study was to provide evidence of the costs of delivering the accelerated honors degrees compared to similar degrees, and to identify barriers to the expansion of the accelerated honors degrees (Hart, 2011).
They found that the cost of the two-year accelerated degree could be between 71% and 74% of the equivalent three-year degree, however there would need to be some institutional restructuring to the procedures, processes and perceptions in order to realize these savings (Hart, p. 3). More so, the indication of the cost comparisons showed that there was a potential for cost savings, however without proper changes to the procedures, the full impact of the savings cannot be seen. Liz Hart Associates recommends that:
· Look into ways to facilitate institutional change in relation to flexible learning
· Consider funding the development of a financial model as a planning tool which would enable institutions to evaluate two-year accelerated honors degrees
· Look more closely at the vocational nature of the two-year accelerated degree and the type of students that would find this type of degree appropriate for their needs
· Consider how to better present the existing range of funding for flexible learning that is already on offer. (Hart, p. 32).
Resources
About the Higher Education Funding Council for England. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.hefce.ac.uk/aboutus/
Flexible Learning. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/flexible/
Hart, L. (2011). Costing study of two-year accelerated honors degrees. Retrieved from Higher Education Funding Council for England website: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rdreports/2011/rd03_11/
