Students: Per Capita Costs

(asked on 14th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government in real terms what was the average per student funding for further education colleges in (1) England, and (2) Cornwall, (a) this year, and (b) for each year since 2005 for which figures are available.


Answered by
Baroness Barran Portrait
Baroness Barran
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This question was answered on 24th November 2023

Since the 2020/21 academic year, the department has made significant increases in funding per student for 16–19 year-old education. The 2021 Spending Review made available an extra £1.6 billion for 16-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year compared with 2021/22.

In July 2023, the department announced that it will be investing £185 million in 2023/24 and £285 million in 2024/25 to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector. This funding will help colleges and other providers to continue to deliver high-value technical, vocational, and academic provision needed to power economic growth and prosperity. This investment will be delivered via core 16-19 year-old funding, including through boosting programme cost weightings for higher-cost subject areas, as well as increasing the per-student funding rate. This investment is on top of £125 million the department announced in January 2023 for 16-19 education in the 2023/24 financial year.

In October 2023, the government announced that, in the future, students retaking English and mathematics GCSE while studying at Level 2 or below will attract the same funding that those studying at Level 3 already receive.

The department does not record the real terms changes to funding as requested and therefore does not hold this information.

The table below uses the published 16-19 funding allocations to derive the average funding per student, in both England and Cornwall from 2014/15 and the subsequent nine academic years, in cash terms. This includes all 16-19 funded students, including those in further education colleges, school sixth forms, and other types of provider. The figures are not available for 2005/06 to 2013/14.

Average total programme funding per student[1] England

Cornwall

2014/2015

£4,432

£4,200

2015/2016

£4,489

£4,326

2016/2017

£4,488

£4,396

2017/2018

£4,514

£4,393

2018/2019

£4,504

£4,410

2019/2020

£4,516

£4,447

2020/2021

£4,958

£4,783

2021/2022

£4,994

£4,878

2022/2023

£5,469

£5,321

2023/2024

£5,923

£5,779

[1] This calculation only includes institutions that have students receiving total programme funding. Some institutions receive only high needs funding – their students are not included in this calculation.

The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB). This resulted in £1.34 billion of investment in the 2023/24 Funding Year.

In 2023/24, the government has devolved approximately 60% of the AEB to 9 Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and the Greater London Authority (GLA). These authorities are now responsible for the provision of AEB-funded adult education for their residents, allocation of the AEB to providers, and for reporting funding in devolved areas. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is responsible for the remaining AEB in non-devolved areas. In ESFA AEB areas the department applied a 2.2% increase to the final earnings for all AEB formula-funded provision (excluding associated learner and learning support) in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years. In addition, the department also applied a 20% boost on top of earnings for all AEB formula-funded provision in 6 sector subject areas: Engineering, Manufacturing Technologies, Transport Operations and Maintenance, Building and Construction, ICT for Practitioners, and Mathematics and Statistics.

Spend by the department on further education is reported through publication of the Annual Report and Accounts, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-annual-reports. The department is unable to provide average funding per learner as funding is determined by a combination of factors including funding rates, funding formulas, earnings method and support funding.

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