The Further Education Funding Council's New Funding Methodology

This paper describes and evaluates the new funding methodology in further education, introduced in 1993 by the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) when it took over control of the further education sector from local authorities. The methodology provides colleges with incentives to expand, to lower unit costs and also aims at reducing inequalities in funding between colleges. This paper examines, in particular, the way colleges have responded to the incentives and, hence, whether the objectives of the FEFC have been achieved.