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Non Award Bearing Continuing Education
NIACE was commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to evaluate its Non Award Bearing Higher Education Programme.
Following the unification of the Higher Education system in England in 1992, the new Funding Council inherited two very different regimes for funding those learning programmes which do not lead directly to a formal higher education qualification (Non Award Bearing Higher Education or NABCE). Its measures to harmonise these included the creation of two new competitive funds, for Widening Provision and Liberal Adult Education. 65 projects have been funded at a total cost of £4.6 million per annum over 4 years.
The evaluation project was concerned with the effectiveness of this funding, and especially with the underlying policy questions:
 | does the creation of a separate "Widening Provision" fund actually lead to a broader range of people participating in higher education? |
| how far is "Liberal Adult Education" a distinct kind of education in need of a separate funding mechanism? |
| The
NIACE interim report for the NABCE project (This is a lengthy document (99KB) and may take a few seconds to download). |
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Reports available from HEFCE:
| 98/49 Good practice in non award-bearing continuing education, £15.00. |
| 99/19 Non award-bearing continuing education: an evaluation of the HEFCE Programme 1995 to 1998, £10.00. |
NIACE is now involved with a number of other networks to offer a pilot consultancy service for higher education institutions seeking to widen participation. This work builds upon the work of our NABCE project.
For more information, contact Alastair Thomson on alastair.thomson@niace.org.uk
Page last updated July, 2005
