Dear All
I've been looking at yesterday's HEFCE circular on student number control (SNC).
I'd characterise is as some evidence of HEFCE sanity and some of new insanity.
The statement that HEFCE non-fundable students will not be measured next year is a good one. I'd be a lot happier if they weren't still measuring ELQ students this year either and suggest that we should all be lobbying them that they should not be counting a group of students that they've specifically excluded from the funding model. There's no difficulty in doing so for them - they simply compare the "HEFCE-fundable" cells on HESES Table 5 from one year to the next. It's a lot more complex to try and work out which of the non-fundables are NHS/TDA/ELQ/Other.
The new insanity it seems to me is the statement that any student who is with us for at least two weeks but not on 1st December will be counted, but that they will then make an allowance to account for that. Are we going to be asked to report on HESES how many students we've had start but leave before HESES? Why not just use the HESES numbers counting those students present on 1st December? The fees fall due from SLC at that point and SLC should be seeking to recover any student support paid out to those no longer attending.
Paul
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Paul Norris
Head of Planning
University of Bedfordshire
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