The financial health of higher education institutions in England : report / by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

  • Great Britain. National Audit Office.
Date:
1994
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: The financial health of higher education institutions in England : report / by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/88 (page 12)
    ie LAD To avoid duplication of effort, on matters relating to individual institutions, the National Audit Office seek to rely on the work of the Audit Service of the Funding Council. The Audit Service in turn seeks to rely on the work of institutions’ internal and external auditors and institutions’ audit committees. In order to rely on this work, the Audit Service assesses each institution’s compliance with the Funding Council’s Audit Code of Practice, which sets out the minimum requirements for internal and external audit arrangements and model terms of reference for audit committees. The extent of work that the Funding Council’s Audit Service carries out directly at institutions will depend on the reliance that can be placed on the current control arrangements at individual institutions. Among the Funding Council's responsibilities is the promotion of good value for money at institutions. The Funding Council, and their predecessors, have supported a broad range of initiatives to monitor institutional performance and to encourage institutions’ efforts in pursuit of better value for money, such as on improved purchasing practices and on harnessing technology to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Moreover, the Funding Council’s current method for funding teaching is related directly to institutional efficiency. In April 1993, the Funding Council, following consultation with the sector, agreed proposals for value for money auditing as an additional wide-ranging value for money tool. Subsequently, in January 1994, a United Kingdom Steering Group was established with the Scottish and Welsh funding councils. The Steering Group has decided that the first national studies will be on treasury management and energy management. In addition, the Funding Council have allocated up to £100,000 in 1994-95 for support of smaller scale value for money projects. Funding of higher education Public recurrent funding of higher education in England, excluding student maintenance grants and loans, is expected to total about £5.1 billion in 1994-95 and is allocated to institutions in three main ways: e recurrent grant, with teaching and research components, allocated by the Funding Council, and capital grants released in the year, in total amounting to £3.5 billion; e tuition fees paid by the Department through local education authorities and estimated to total £1.2 billion; and e research grants and contracts paid by the Research Councils, amounting to £0.4 billion. Institutions’ income from other sources (fees from overseas students, special and short courses, consultancies, residence and catering, donations and appeals, research grants and contracts paid by Government departments, health and hospital authorities, European Union sources, industry and charities