Hefce’s supporting role

The report on the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s role in learning and teaching (“ ‘Superficial’: £500m fails to develop class acts”, News, 31 July) was commissioned by the Higher Education Academy at our request, and reflects our commitment to independent review.

The report provides some helpful pointers for the future, but does not acknowledge as fully as it might the environment in which Hefce operates. For example, rather than working directly with “everyday” university teaching staff as the report suggests, our role is to support the learning and teaching strategies of autonomous institutions. And we do need to respond to entirely legitimate changes in government policy priorities – even if this brings a degree of discontinuity to what we fund when viewed historically.

Hefce will continue to support the sector in stimulating innovation and further enhancing teaching quality.

Madeleine Atkins
Chief executive
Higher Education Funding Council for England