Kennedy calls off raid on universities

HELENA Kennedy QC has been forced to clarify demands to redistribute resources between further and higher education after protests from vice chancellors seeking cross-sector unity in the campaign for more government cash.

A copy of her final draft report, Learning Works: Widening Participation in Further Education, to be published next Wednesday and leaked to The THES, reveals crucial changes to the original draft which was extensively leaked to the press last month.

Ms Kennedy's final draft report still calls for a redistribution of resources to widen further education participation but, crucially, she has added a paragraph to the earlier version to reassure the university sector that she has no intention of raiding their funds.

The draft report says: "Our universities are the best in the world and that pre-eminence must be preserved. What is needed is the same excellence to be pursued on behalf of students in other parts of the firmament. The Treasury has to find more money for education and further education has to move up the agenda in making a claim on those funds."

Many vice chancellors were fearful of Ms Kennedy's intentions following the earlier draft which omitted this key acknowledgement. Sources close to Ms Kennedy say that she was "encouraged" to modify or clarify the report in order to avoid a potentially damaging competition for limited resources between higher and further education.

Dearing insiders say that Sir Ron, whose higher education report is due in two weeks, was among those to hold talks with Ms Kennedy after the original draft was leaked. Higher education minister Tessa Blackstone is also understood to have made clear her opposition to a situation of "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

But Ms Kennedy has denied being under any pressure to water down her demands for redistribution between the two sectors. Earlier this week she said: "It suddenly became clear that some people thought I was suggesting a sort of Entebbe raid on university funds. I am talking about a seemless web. This is a real opportunity to start looking at further and higher education together and to stop seeing further education as the 13th member of the table."

Despite the clarification, the final draft remains radical in its demand for financial redistribution. The paragraph immediately before the conciliatory addition says: "This will involve the Government taking some tough decisions affecting the gold card of funding for full-time higher education. We have to move towards equity of funding for post-16 education."

Specifically, the draft report calls for a retargetting of public resources towards those with few or no qualifications. This could involve extending and weighting any new student loans system to encourage people who might most benefit from education.

There is also a proposal to establish a learning regeneration fund operating at regional and sub-regional level. It would draw together pockets of money from a variety of public, private and European sources.

The Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals warmly welcomed the report. A spokeswoman said: "Clearly higher and further education both have funding problems. We want both sectors to be adequately funded."

* Kennedy details, budget wrangles, page 5

* Lankester letter on loans, page 15

* Welfare to work guru page, 17