The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will distribute £7,356 million to 130 universities and higher education colleges, and 123 directly funded further education colleges, for the academic year 2010 11

The main elements of the grant are £4,727 million for teaching, £1,603 million for research and £150 million for the higher education innovation fund. In addition HEFCE is providing £562 million for earmarked capital grants and £294 million for special funding

he changes in allocations to individual universities and colleges vary (see attached grant tables) depending on a number of factors. The most significant are the increased concentration of funding to universities with the highest quality research , funding for additional student places, reduction in targeted allocations which have formed part of teaching grants  and the withdrawal of moderation funding from the current academic year, 2009-10.

Sir Alan Langlands, Chief Executive of HEFCE, said: 'In these testing economic times we have done all that we can to maximise the flexibility that universities and colleges have to meet their priorities and pursue new opportunities. We have done this by protecting core funding and concentrating on what really matters: high quality learning and teaching, world class research and the important contribution that higher education makes to the economy and society.

'About half of all institutions will receive cash increases, but others will face reductions in funding. In some cases we are providing moderation funding enabling institutions to adjust to lower level funding in the next academic year. Our overall approach has been to maintain quality. Working within the available resources we have also maintained our commitment to key policies including widening participation, supporting strategically important and vulnerable subjects, strengthening the research base and promoting interaction with the business community.

'Managing in times of financial constraint is not easy, but we believe that universities and colleges will continue to meet the needs of students, users of research and the wider community as they have done in the past. Higher education represents an excellent investment for the country with every pound spent yielding three pounds to the economy. We will continue to make the case robustly for higher education which, as the Government recognises, has an essential role in creating a vibrant economy and a just society.'
Student numbers

Early student returns show that there were 389,000 undergraduate home and EC entrants to higher education in 2009-10 in England bringing the total number of such students in all years to 1,009,000. Overall the number of students in 2010-11 will continue to grow to record levels because of the in-built growth from earlier years. However, the new controls on entrants will begin to stabilise growth in future years. (See additional notes on student numbers)

Support for STEM and modern languages

The total for teaching includes £10 million that has been set aside to support institutions that are shifting the balance of their provision towards vulnerable science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and modern languages subjects. The distribution of this funding will be confirmed later this year, along with some additional funding for widening participation, and improving retention.