3 April 2008

Matched funding Scheme for English Universities

Proof of pudding lies in who gets the lion’s share of matched funding, says university think-tank Vice-Chancellor

Responding to the Government’s announcement (3 April) that voluntary giving to universities will be incentivised by matched public funding to institutions, Professor Les Ebdon, Chair of the university think-tank Million+ and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire said “The proof of the pudding will be in the actual distribution of the matched funds which the Government is making available. There will be little merit or fairness in an outcome which uses £200M of taxpayers money to deliver the lion’s share of public money to a minority of institutions which teach a relatively small number of students.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

Million+ evidence to the Government’s consultation said that the aim of any new scheme should be to ensure that the majority of institutions and the majority of students benefited from the public funding that was being made available.

The Government has announced that there will be 3 tiers for matched funding and that HEIs will have to volunteer for a tier. The caps for each tier will be adjusted according to how many HEIs volunteer for each one but the Government has confirmed that the 1:3 tier will have the highest cap.

The 3 Tiers

1. £1 matched funding for £1 raised by HEI
2. £1 matched funding for every £2 raised by HEI
3. £1 matched funding for every £3 raised by HEI

Eligible donations for matched funding have been determined by the Government but the scheme lays emphasis on donations of cash and shares (rather than pledges).

Million+ evidence also pointed out that the average endowment income in the sector was £1.75M per institution per annum taking into account ‘the high fliers’. However there was a huge discrepancy due to historic funding regimes and student profiles between a small number of universities and the majority of the sector. The majority of universities raised less than £1M per annum in spite of targeted efforts to raise funds.

For further information, comment and interviews, please contact Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive of Million+ on 020 7717 1655 / 07795 645241.