Association of Colleges

06 July 2011

Colleges and Bursaries

At the end of June, Colleges received letters from the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) telling them about their bursary allocations, which will help the poorest students continue their education. Bursaries replace Education Maintenance Allowances but the total money available will fall from £575m in 2010 to £180m in 2012, a cut of two-thirds.

Many Colleges have been surprised that the Bursary fund for the 2011/12 academic year adds up to £115m instead of the £180m it promised in March. This is because the Department for Education (DfE) decided to top-slice the fund to provide money for the transition payments paid to young people who received EMAs in 2009 and 2010 and who are still under 19.

Julian Gravatt, AoC Assistant Chief Executive, said: “We’ve had a number of calls from College principals and managers who are concerned that they won’t have enough money to meet the needs of their students who are going to be enrolling this summer. Many Colleges tell us that they will not have enough money to make guaranteed payments to young people on free school meals. We have raised this with DfE and YPLA officials but we are also confident that Colleges will do their utmost to make sure that funding reaches those students most in need.”

Colleges received their allocations and the official guidance only 70 days before the need to start taking Bursary applications in September. The timetable is exceptionally short and AoC is therefore providing advice to Colleges and Schools on how to administer Bursaries. Version 1 of our advice was published on 1 July 2011 and is available here:   AoC Bursary Administration Advice 1 July 2011