£13m package for university
Apr 1 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal
A UNIVERSITY is in line for a £13m cash boost after winning Government backing for its drive to become more business facing.
The University of Teesside has been awarded £5.13m from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to develop new relationships with employers and help support business growth and staff training in the region.
The HEFCE will also provide the university with a further £4.5m over three years to enable 3,000 employees to take advantage of new learning opportunities. Meanwhile, employers will be asked to contribute a further £3.3m to support the programmes until 2011 – making the total package worth £13m to the university.
The batch of funding is the first in the region from the HEFCE for employer-related activities.
It could help more people across the region follow the lead of mother and daughter Jean and Rachel Featherstone, who last year enrolled on the foundation degree in leadership – which was designed by the North East Chamber of Commerce – at Teesside. The HEFCE’s backing is expected to help more workers on to employment-related courses.
HEFCE chief executive Professor David Eastwood said: "The projects we are funding today reflect the changing and quickening pace of employer engagement, which is now becoming part of the core business of higher education.
"Through our support of universities and colleges, we are on track to create more than 5,000 new places part-funded by employers for working people in 2008- 09. The target will then be raised to at least 10,000 entrants in 2009-10 and 20,000 in 2010-11."
Yesterday's announcement follows Professor Eastwood's visit to Teesside last month when he said the HEFCE would provide £105m over the next three years to support the development of courses where the cost is jointly shared by the individual, the state and the employer.
The University of Teesside's vice-chancellor Professor Graham Henderson said: "Today's announcement is a £13m vote of confidence in our strategy to become a leading employer-facing university."
The University's professor Simon Hodgson - dean of the university’s School of Science and Technology and head of its IDEAS Institute - said: "For us this is a huge opportunity to become a more employer-focused organisation. This is the beginning of the process and there are things that we are planning to develop."
Yesterday HEFCE also announced plans to give large batches of funding to Staffordshire University, the University of Cumbria and Worcester College of Technology.
HEFCE's employer co- funding budget will be £15m in 2008-09, rising to £40m in 2009-10 and at least £50m in 2010-11 as part of the Government's response to the Leitch review of skills.
In January, John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills indicated a wish to see 'more substantial growth' in employment-facing training from 2011.
Meanwhile, other North East universities are also involved in a drive to become more employment-facing.
The University of Sunderland received £10m in funding in 2003 to help develop skills training courses for North East manufacturers to upskill their workforces.
