The Office for Students (OfS) has today received guidance from the Secretary of State for Education on the Higher Education Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) for the 2024-25 financial year. This is an important source of funding that supports the work of the sector across a range of critical areas, such as student mental health, high-cost subject provision, equality of opportunity and technical higher education.
London Higher is disappointed to note the real terms reduction in the SPG for the coming year and especially concerned that this will impact the Uni Connect Programme, funding for which has been reduced from £30m to £20m. As a delivery partner in the London Uni Connect consortium – one of 29 national collaborative outreach partnerships delivering Uni Connect – we see first-hand the transformative impact of the programme. Since its inception in 2019, it has enabled us to reach over 5000 prospective students, create meaningful paid opportunities for current HE students to co-deliver outreach activities, and target support towards the most vulnerable young Londoners (for instance through our Elevate programme for care leavers). The London region already receives the least Uni Connect funding of all English regions and this new funding cut threatens to destabilise collaborative outreach in the capital, not to mention derail the OfS’ own regulatory objectives for equality of opportunity in English HE.
The decision is all the more inexplicable given that it comes in the wake of compelling evidence of Uni Connect’s economic impact and of its effectiveness in closing HE access gaps for underrepresented groups. The fact that a programme delivering on its stated aims has seen its funding further eroded and only been assured of continuation for a further 12 months speaks to the shortcomings of the SPG as a mechanism for funding collaborative outreach in a sustainable, strategic way. London Higher looks forward to reiterating this in our response to the open consultation on the OfS’ funding powers.
