Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding is available to universities via the Strategic Priorities Grant.

The government provides funding through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) on an annual basis to support teaching and students in higher education (HE), including expensive to deliver subjects such as science and engineering, students at risk of discontinuing their studies and world leading specialist providers.

The total recurrent SPG funding to be distributed by the Office for Students (OfS) for the 2024/25 academic year is £1.426 million. This comprises £1.402 million in recurrent grant for providers and £24 million in funding for national facilities and regulatory initiatives.

The department made £281 million of funding available to providers for the 2024/25 academic year in the form of student premiums and mental health support to promote successful outcomes for students, including for disadvantaged students.

For the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25, the SPG multi-year capital funding was set at £450 million to support investment in teaching and learning facilities. The outcomes for the distribution of capital grant funding by the OfS to eligible HE providers is available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/capital-funding-for-financial-years-2022-23-to-2024-25/.

On 29 July 2024, the OfS published the outcomes of their decision on how the 2024/25 academic year SPG recurrent funding would be allocated to eligible HE providers. The full summary of their decision-making can be accessed here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/467e28b4-7bc4-4223-bfbc-33de5836c349/funding-for-2023-24-ofs-decisions.pdf.

On 25 October 2024, the OfS also published the latest edition of the funding allocations for each provider for the 2024/25 academic year. The breakdown for each HE provider is available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/recurrent-funding-for-2024-25/.