Funding and initiatives
Universities receive funding for widening access to raise educational aspirations and skills, promote higher education-level study and improve student retention.
We give extra funding - a widening access premium - in our annual teaching grant to higher education institutions (HEIs) to recognise the extra costs of recruiting and retaining students from under-represented groups.
Recurrent Grant Circular 2009/10: Circular W09/08HE
We also encourage higher education (HE)Â institutions to plan their widening access activities by producing three-year widening access strategies. These include plans for supporting disabled students.
We operate a Widening Access Fund to support the strategies and HEIs report on progress to us annually.
Circular W09/16HE provides information on institutions’ widening access strategy development in the context of the Review of Higher Education in Wales. It sets out the 2009/10 allocations to be made to institutions to support their implementation of widening access strategies and it offers some brief guidance on our expectations for reporting progress and expenditure through the annual monitoring process.
With the introduction of variable fees in Wales in 2007/08, the Welsh Government stated that five-year Fee Plans, consistent with the principles of Reaching Higher, would have to be submitted by all higher education providers in Wales for a portion of this additional income.
HEFCW was asked to review and assess all plans based on guidance provided by the Welsh Government. Institutions were asked to account for the use of 30% of the total new income based on financial estimates.
Institutions were asked to provide detail of expenditure and activity in three areas:- investment required for the National Bursary Scheme
- widening access provision
- promotion of higher education provision in Wales
Fee plans are monitored in November of each year against agreed targets and expenditure levels as part of the Annual Monitoring Statement process.
