Last week HEFCE published the outcomes of its consultation into arrangements for student recruitment, particularly SNC for 2014-15.

“For 2013-14 admissions, HEFCE was also asked by Government to allow all universities and colleges some flexibility in their student number control allocations, to make sure that they could better cater to student choice and demand. From 2014-15, Government also asked HEFCE to look at how we might be able to offer more places to universities and colleges where there was evidence of demand from students, and treat those institutions that have less demand less favourably. HEFCE consulted on how we should implement this guidance

The main change for 2014-15 admissions is that, provided the Government’s financial circumstances allow, universities and colleges that recruit significantly below their student number control allocations will lose some of their places, and these will be reallocated to those universities or colleges that recruit well. Those universities and colleges that lose places will have an opportunity over the next year to recover some of the places lost.”

For universities that recruit significantly below SNC then there is a year’s flexibility to recover –

“The policy aim is to aid student choice by allowing popular institutions to grow, and an argument could be made that innovation will be equally constrained if popular institutions are not given adequate opportunities to capitalise on demand. We note that the recruitment cycle is longer than a year, and that with the recovery mechanism it will actually be two years before any significant reductions in the SNC allocation would be applied. “

The flexibility available to institutions from 2014-15 will be a minimum of 12 places, or 3 per cent, whichever is larger, although this was written in the context of institutions exceeding their SNC, I’m still not clear if this is the same figure to count as being significantly below target.

The appendix to the document shows the responses to the consultation, and how HEFCE has interpreted them. This one is interesting:”Will the proposed approach offer students more choice while also protecting the student support budget?”. Responses from HEIs have 23 saying yes, 22 saying no,, and 51 saying don’t know. An interesting response, and more detailed notes show concerns with impact on widening participation, local recruitment and impact at regional levels.

The next year or two of undergraduate recruitment, certainly for those with significant SNC look to be challenging. Are we yet approaching the time when we need to consider post qualification applications – Paul Greatrix at Nottingham certainly thinks so.