Fighting for a balance

The new chief executive of the Association of Colleges has pledged to fight for the same financial support for further education students as those in higher education already get.

Roger Ward, appointed to the new further education body last week, said: "I don't want to hear schemes being discussed, loans or grants, exclusively for higher education. All I'm asking is that when ministers come to the table to talk, further education is sitting there alongside higher education as equal partners. Until that situation arises we will remain an angry sector."

The Government now spends more than Pounds 2 billion on mandatory grants for 770,000 HE students in addition to the loans system. While 16 to 19-year-olds at further education colleges may apply for discretionary awards from local authorities, it is up to individual councils to decide how much they can afford to give. About Pounds 160 million per year goes on discretionary grants for all students, most going to those in FE.

The Department for Education and Employment also gave the Further Education Funding Council Pounds 6 million this year to provide access funds for FE students needing extra help with transport or childcare.

It is now consulting with local councils and the FEFC about the possibility of increasing this sum.

Mr Ward said colleges had already discussed the benefits of transferring full responsibility for student grants from local authorities to the FEFC. "We are in favour of a national scheme equally applied to students across the land to replace the mish-mash of local authority support, or rather lack of support, we have now. We see no reason why we can't have that scheme through the funding councils, providing FE students are dealt with to no lesser extent than HE students and providing the funds don't evaporate at the end of year one."

David Whitbread, education officer of the Association of County Councils, said the association would support the idea of equal funding for FE and HE students. He said that while the number of awards for FE students had increased, the amount given in each case was smaller. "If it was made a statutory requirement that every student who passed a certain hurdle got an entitlement to a grant it would stop shrinking funds," he said. But he opposed the FEFC taking over the grant system.

A DFEE spokesman said it was not possible to comment because the FE grants system was still out for consultation.

* The University and Colleges Admissions Service has denied reports that it wants to bid for the grants system. Tony Higgins, Ucas chief executive, said it was simply helping a number of local authorities and the Student Loans Company by allowing early access to data on student admissions.