Frequently asked questions
This section covers the more specialist questions we are asked by journalists.
For facts and figures, see our Quick Facts. You might also want to browse our general FAQs.
- What is a typical bursary?
- How much money do universities and colleges spend on bursaries and other access measures under their access agreements?
- Which students does OFFA cover?
- How do you define ‘lower income’ and ‘other under-represented groups’?
- What success have you had in safeguarding access to higher education?
- What have your main achievements been to date?
- What powers does OFFA have?
- Does your remit include admissions?
- What targets do universities have to meet in order to charge higher fees?
- Do universities have to set themselves targets to recruit students from certain ethnic groups?
- What other positions does Sir Graeme Davies hold?
What is a typical bursary?
The typical bursary in 2011-12 for a student entitled to the full maintenance grant (e.g. students with an assessed household income of less than £25,000) is around £900.
For information about different bursary types, see our Quick Facts section.
How much money do universities and colleges spend on bursaries and other access measures under their access agreements?
In 2009-10 (the most recent year for which we have monitoring data), universities and colleges spent £355.7 million on bursaries and scholarships for lower income students and other represented groups. Three-quarters of this money (75 per cent) went to the poorest students i.e. students whose parents earn less than £25,000 between them. In the same year, universities and colleges spent £38.3 million on additional outreach such as summer schools, mentoring and visits to schools and colleges in disadvantaged areas. In total, universities spent a quarter (25.1 per cent) of their ‘additional’ fee income on access measures.
You can find detailed information about access agreement expenditure in our monitoring outcome reports, available from our publications page.
Which students does OFFA cover?
OFFA regulates tuition fees and bursary packages for home/EU students on publicly funded, full-time undergraduate courses and full-time postgraduate teacher training courses at English universities and colleges. In future, subject to Parliamentary approval, part-time students will also come under our remit. We do not cover other postgraduate courses or overseas students.
All publicly funded providers of higher education in England that wish to charge tuition fees above the basic level (£1,345 in 2011-12) have to submit an access agreement to us for approval. We then monitor their progress in meeting their access agreement commitments on an annual basis.
How do you define ‘lower income’ and ‘other under-represented groups’?
OFFA’s remit is to safeguard access to education for under-represented groups. Primarily, these are lower income students. For 2011-12, we define lower income students as those with household incomes of less than £50,020 – the threshold for eligibility for a partial state maintenance grant. For students entering university in 2012-13, we define lower income students as those with a household income of less than £42,600 (the new threshold for eligibility for a partial state maintenance grant). We define lowest income students as those with a household income of less than £25,000, the threshold for the full maintenance grant. We consider other under-represented groups to include:
- students from lower socio-economic groups and low participation neighbourhoods
- students from some ethnic groups or sub-groups
- students who have been in care
- disabled students.
What success have you had in safeguarding access to higher education?
Initial evidence strongly suggests that the introduction of higher fees in 2006-07 has not had a detrimental effect on participation of students from low income and other under-represented groups. Analysis by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) published in 2010 shows that over the last five years the chances of young people from disadvantaged areas going to university have increased by 30 per cent. Since 2006 there have also been rising trends in the ‘Higher Education Initial Participation Rate’ (HEIPR), the ‘Full-time Young Participation by Socio-economic Class’ report published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) higher education performance indicators for widening participation.
However, despite good progress in widening participation to the sector as a whole, analysis published by OFFA in 2010 as part of Sir Martin Harris’ report ‘What more can be done to widen access to highly selective universities?’ shows that participation of disadvantaged young people at the most selective universities has not increased since the mid-1990s. The most advantaged 20 per cent of young people are seven times more likely to enter the most selective universities than the most disadvantaged 40 per cent.
What have your main achievements been to date?
Our key achievements have been as follows:
Institutional investment
See above for how much universities and colleges spend on bursaries and scholarships, and other outreach.
Beneficiaries
- more than 402,000 students from lower income and other under-represented groups received a bursary or scholarship in 2009-10 – around 47 per cent of students across all universities and colleges. More than 271,000 (67 per cent) of these students were from the lowest income group (i.e. in receipt of full state support)
- in 2011-12 some 89 per cent of universities and colleges are giving bursaries above the statutory minimum of £338 to students on full state support. The typical bursary for these students is around £900 a year
- we have encouraged universities and colleges to support care leavers into higher education by promoting the Buttle UK Quality Mark for Care Leavers. To date, 67 universities and colleges in England have been awarded the Quality Mark and 31 currently offer additional bursaries specifically aimed at care leavers.
Bursary awareness and take-up
- bursary take-up among students from the lowest income group has improved from 90 per cent in 2007-08 to 98 per cent in 2010-11.
Widening participation strategic assessments
- we have worked closely with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) on the introduction of widening participation strategic assessments to ensure that access agreements are integrated with university and colleges’ broader WP strategy.
What powers does OFFA have?
Universities and colleges must have an access agreement approved by the Director of Fair Access to be able to charge higher tuition fees.
There are two sanctions open to us if a university or college seriously and wilfully breaches its access agreement. We can:
- direct HEFCE or the TDA (Training and Development Agency for Schools) to deduct a fine from the university or college’s grant or suspend part of its grant until it has put matters right
- refuse to renew the university’s or college’s access agreement, thereby preventing it from charging full-time undergraduate students tuition fees above the basic level for a period after its access agreement has expired.
Further detail on sanctions can be found in Annex E of ‘How to produce an access agreement for 2012-13′.
Does your remit include admissions?
No. The Higher Education Act 2004 specifically excludes institutions’ admissions policies and procedures from our remit (see point 3 of the original guidance letter we received). It is therefore wrong and misleading to call us the ‘admissions watchdog’. If you are looking for a succinct way of describing what we do, you could call us ‘the fair access watchdog’.
What targets do universities and colleges have to meet in order to charge higher fees?
Universities and colleges set their own targets but these targets have to be agreed by OFFA. From 2012-13 these targets must include at least one target around broadening their entrant pool (up to now it has been possible for institutions to restrict their targets to broadening their applicant pool). We also encourage universities and colleges to set themselves targets around their work on outreach and, where appropriate, retention.
We normally expect universities and colleges to have a range of targets in order to measure their progress effectively. When considering whether targets are sufficiently ambitious, we consider whether they represent a balanced view of the institution’s performance, and look to ensure that they address those areas where indicators suggest that the institution has furthest to go to improve access.
In considering progress against targets we will normally consider trends rather than single data points and will want to know the progress an institution is making with both their longer and shorter term initiatives.
From 2012-13, in line with Ministerial guidance, we are placing a greater emphasis on progress against targets. In their most recent access agreements with us (for 2012-13), universities and colleges have agreed ambitious targets, often supported by significant increases in the resources they are devoting to widening participation and fair access.
Do universities have to set themselves targets to recruit students from certain ethnic groups?
No. The targets universities choose are based on their assessment of where they need to improve on access and, where appropriate, retention. As such, there is no requirement for universities to set themselves targets for recruiting students from a particular ethnic group although many currently do so.
Under-representation in higher education by ethnicity is a complex issue. Current available evidence suggests that, at a national level, many minority ethnic groups have higher participation rates than white groups. However, there are considerable disparities between ethnic groups in terms of participation rates, patterns of study and degree attainment. In addition, black and minority ethnic students are concentrated in certain institutions and subjects, so there are important issues of fair access. For more information, see HEFCE’s Student ethnicity Issues paper, published in 2010, and HESA’s Students in Higher Education publication for 2009-10, which shows (among other things) the breakdown by ethnicity of students at individual institutions.
What other positions does Sir Martin Harris hold?
Sir Martin Harris currently has the following positions:
- President of Clare Hall College, Cambridge (please note that this is a postgraduate only college)
- Chairman of the Universities Superannuation Scheme
- Chairman of the Cambridge Commonwealth and Overseas Trust.