There are some 20 of the most important higher education organisations that governors need to be aware of and they are presented here in alphabetical order (apart from item 1):
1. The Funding Bodies:
HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) See also Investing in Successful Futures: A Guide to HEFCE
SFC (the Scottish Funding Council) See also the SFC Facts and Figures booklet
HEFCW (the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales), and
DEL (the Department for Employment and Learning - Northern Ireland)
are the principal funders of UK higher education. Each body has its own formulae and methods for allocating funds for teaching, but all share in a common process for allocating research funds through the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), to be replaced soon by the Research Excellence Framework (REF), every five years. HEFCE also takes the lead in developing and funding ‘top sliced’ programmes related to government policy, such as leadership, governance and management and collaboration with industry.
2. CUC (The Committee of University Chairs) is the body that provides a forum for the Chairs of all universities represented in UniversitiesUK. Although initially an informal organisation, it now has a secretariat based at Birmingham City University and is involved in regular liaison with Universities UK and other HE agencies. It produces essential publications such as a newsletter and the Guide for Members of Higher Education Governing Bodies in the UK. It was responsible for developing a Governance Code of Practice in 2004 following a recommendation in the Lambert Report.
3 The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is the department in England that sponsors the relevant funding councils (subject to local arrangements). It has delegated funding and operational management of higher education in England to HEFCE but retains overall control of English HE policy and planning. Each year the Department issues a letter of guidance to HEFCE reminding it of national policies and giving any special steers. The BIS web site has a section devoted to higher education reform where the main aspects of government HE policy are brought together. There are parallel arrangements in other parts of the UK. In Wales the relevant department of the Welsh Assembly Government is DCELLS - the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills.
4 Equality Challenge Unit is a specialist agency established by the higher education sector that promotes equal opportunities in higher education. It works with individual institutions and advises on all issues relating to equity and diversity. The Unit also publishes guidance as well as a full summary of the legislation and case law on all aspects of equal opportunities.
5 GuildHE is the representative body for the higher education college sector in England and Northern Ireland, and is housed in the same building as Universities UK. The GuildHE web site contains some useful overall statistics on HE colleges as well as a number of policy papers and publications. GuildHE is a partner with UUK in many of the sector’s agencies and activities such as the Europe Unit, the Equality Challenge Unit and Aim Higher.
6 HESA (The Higher Education Statistics Agency) is the central source for all UK higher education statistics and was established by the sector. It collects five main data sets electronically from institutions: students, student first destinations, staff, finance and non-credit-bearing course records. The resulting statistics are published annually in various formats, but are not free except for a small subset on HOLIS (the HESA Online Information Service) and annual performance indicator information published on behalf of all the four UK funding bodies. HESA also offers a customised data analysis service for researchers.
7 The Higher Education Academy was created in 2004 to unite the various sector activities devoted to enhancing learning and teaching in higher education. These include a professional institute (formerly the ILTHE) that accredits academic staff as registered practitioners, a network of subject centres devoted to promoting innovation in teaching in their discipline, a national support service for institutional efforts in enhancing the quality of learning and teaching, and a scheme for awarding national teaching fellowships for excellence in teaching. The Academy is financed from a mixture of fees, grants and contract income and is an independent organisation owned by sector bodies such as UUK and GuildHE.
8 JISC (the Joint Information Systems Committee) is an advisory committee to the UK higher and further education funding bodies on all matters concerned with the use of information and communications technology. JISC has a very wide range of activities, including managing JANET (the national academic network which is run by UKERNA), promoting and providing online content for the academic community, offering a number of free support services, and commissioning development projects on topics such as interoperability, authentication, common standards, open access publishing, institutional repositories (for locally produced electronic content) and e-learning. JISC is funded by the higher education funding bodies and the Skills Funding Agency.
9 The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education is an organisation dedicated to strengthening the quality of leadership, management and governance in higher education. It was launched in March 2004 as a result of an initiative by UUK and SCOP (now GuildHE) and was given a grant of £10 million by all the funding bodies for its first three years. Funding has now been extended to 2012. The Foundation’s Governor Development Programme has absorbed and extended the work of the Committee of University Chairs. Its other activities include the Top Management Programme (targeted at potential vice-chancellors/ principals and senior administrators), as well as a series of flagship programmes for serving heads of institutions, deputies and pro vice-chancellors and deans. It has a remit to build on the best international experience and to liaise closely with all leadership development activity and research in other sectors outside higher education.
10 The NUS (National Union of Students) is the confederation of student unions in colleges and universities in the UK. Its members are the unions which in total represent about 5 million students from 750 institutions. Its role is to provide research, representation, training and expert advice to students themselves and their unions. It campaigns nationally on issues such as tuition fees, welfare, anti-racism, the environment, black students and those with disabilities. The NUS runs a training programme each year for new student governors.
11 OFFA (The Office for Fair Access) was established in October 2004 as an independent non departmental public body which "aims to promote and safeguard fair access to education for under-represented groups". Its Director is charged with approving an access agreement with every university and college in England, and this should set out how that institution aims to safeguard and promote fair access and what its levels of fees and bursaries will be. Until OFFA has approved its agreement, an institution is unable to charge tuition fees above the standard level.
12 OIA (The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education) was established in 2004 to operate an independent scheme for hearing complaints and appeals from students laid against their higher education institution. All institutions in England and Wales are required to comply with the rules of the scheme, and guidance on them for students and institutions is given on the OIA web site. Before applying to use the scheme students must first exhaust the internal complaints procedure of the university or college, and complaints cannot be considered if they relate to admission procedures, academic judgements or student employment. The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) has this role in Scotland.
13 QAA (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education) is the national body established in 1997 to provide an integrated quality assurance service for UK higher education. It is financed partly from institutional subscriptions and partly from contracts with funding bodies. Its quality assurance processes have undergone revision in recent years and it now aims to adopt a lighter touch on regulation than before, although its processes differ for Scotland (see QAA - Scotland) and Wales. English institutions and those in Northern Ireland can now expect to have an external audit by the QAA every five years and to be placed in one of three broad classifications. Almost all of the published league tables use QAA’s rankings and scores from its early audits, which are often several years out of date. The QAA has published a large amount of advice, guidelines and precepts that institutions are invited to adopt for their internal quality assurance activities. It also audits collaborative arrangements overseas where English institutions have partnerships with foreign providers that lead to the award of a UK qualification.
14 Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) England has nine regions, each with an RDA, a Government Office and an HE Consortium. The regional agenda is increasing in political importance and central government is starting to measure the performance of regions in topics such as their R&D expenditure or the extent of their business cooperation with institutions. The strategy of each region varies according to need, but each RDA has developed enterprise hubs and networks to promote technology transfer and they are thus vital partners for HE institutions wishing to expand their services for business. HEFCE has also emphasised the regional agenda by giving financial support to the establishment of regional associations of universities. The address and web site of each RDA can be found in the HEFCE Publication that is issued each year called Contacts in Higher Education.
15 The Research Councils UK (RCUK) RCUK is a strategic partnership between the seven UK Research Councils, and was established in 2002 to enable the Councils to work together more effectively to enhance the overall impact and effectiveness of their research, training and innovation activities, contributing to the delivery of the Government’s objectives for science and innovation. Each of the Research Councils is an equal partner in RCUK, and each uses its best endeavours to identify and pursue opportunities for mutually beneficial joint working with one or more of the other Councils. Leadership of the partnership is provided by the Research Councils’ Chief Executives working together through the RCUK Executive Group.
16 The Skills Funding Agency funds and regulates adult further education in England. The Young People's Learning Agency supports the delivery of education and training to young people in England.
17 TDA (Training and Development Agency) is the agency charged with funding all teacher training in England. It allocates funding to providers of initial teacher training (ITT), including institutions of higher education which offer formal awards in education up to doctorate level. It also funds a Graduate Teacher Programme. It works with OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education) to inspect the various providers and to set standards for qualified teacher status.
18 UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) is owned by the sector and provides the central admissions service for full time undergraduate applications to all UK institutions of higher and further education. Applications from postgraduates are handled directly by institutions themselves. The UCAS website contains comprehensive statistics on applications, most of which are freely available, although some (such as postcode tracking) are available only to institutions under the capitation charge they pay to UCAS. Most of the UCAS web site is designed to inform students about institutions and to help them apply online to any of the 300 HE and FE institutions it serves.
19 UCEA (Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association) is the organisation which provides services to higher education employers on matters such as salaries, conditions of service and employee relations. It is owned by the sector and its members pay annual subscriptions; the UCEA provides administrative support for the Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES) and its working groups, which have replaced the previous ten separate negotiating bodies in the sector. The UCEA web site provides full details of pay and job evaluation arrangements. The UCEA has a Health and Safety Working Group which acts for the sector in discussions with the Health and Safety Commission.
20 UUK (UniversitiesUK) is the association that represents the universities of the UK in their dealings with government, industry and international bodies. It describes its role as being "the essential voice of UK universities by promoting and supporting their work". Its members include all but one or two of the universities. It has separate National Councils covering the interests of its Scottish and Welsh members as well as one for those from England and Northern Ireland. It also manages UCEA. As well as its lobbying function UUK commissions research studies of policy issues and has a wide range of publications; these are all available on its web site.