21 February 2006
Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme (ORSAS): funding allocations
1. This letter confirms institutions' ORSAS allocations for 2006-07. It also provides information about new monitoring arrangements to apply from 2006-07. No response is required to this letter.
Background
2. As you will be aware, the funding arrangements for ORSAS have been changed in order to reduce the accountability burden on institutions (see HEFCE Circular letters 15/2005 and 21/2005). In England, institutions' ORSAS allocations for 2006-07 are based on the mean value of ORSAS payments made in each of the previous three academic years 2002-03 to 2004-05, pro rata to the £13 million total we will allocate for ORSAS. All institutions that have received any ORSAS funding during this period will receive a minimum award of £5,000 in 2006-07.
3. Within these allocations, institutions may be left with a balance of funding which is insufficient to support a further full ORSAS award. In such cases, the balance should be carried over for use the following year.
4. Award maintenance issues (including students' leave of absences, suspensions, transfers and withdrawals) should be managed by each institution in line with the objectives of the scheme and the terms of funding set out below.
Terms of funding
5. The terms of the funding are unchanged and can be summarised as follows:
- the objective of the ORSAS scheme is to encourage high quality overseas postgraduate research students to undertake their research degrees in the UK
- the funding should be used to provide awards to full-time postgraduate students who are classified as 'overseas' for tuition fee purposes
- awards must be made for the difference between the home tuition fee for postgraduate research students and the institution's overseas tuition fee for the relevant subject
- awards can be held for a maximum of three years
- ORSAS awards may only be made up to the value of each institution's ORSAS allocation. Additional awards funded from other sources should not be associated with the ORSAS scheme.
Payment arrangements
6. HEFCE will pay institutions' allocations in full through the normal HEFCE grant. This will be in a single annual payment in October each year, starting in October 2006.
Monitoring arrangements
7. From 2007-08 we intend to monitor ORSAS allocations by reference to institutions' returns to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Institutions will be given more details on this in due course.
8. For 2006-07 we will monitor ORSAS expenditure through the established annual monitoring statement submitted to us each July.
9. As previously indicated, for the current academic year 2005-06 we have paid institutions 85 per cent of new and continuing awards. At the end of the year we will ask institutions to confirm the final value of the awards taken up during 2005-06, and then either generate a single adjustment payment or reclaim funding as appropriate.
10. In accordance with normal procedures, we may choose to include ORSAS as part of regular institutional audit visits.
Review
11. The HEFCE Board has approved these new arrangements for three years in the first instance, from 2006-07 to 2008-09 inclusive, subject to review in 2007-08. If the scheme continues beyond 2008-09, we may modify our allocation formula at that point to take account of changes in institutions' postgraduate research student funding and overseas student numbers.
Further information
12. For full details on ORSAS please visit the web-site. For further information contact Vanessa Conte (tel 0117 931 7254, e-mail v.conte@hefce.ac.uk). [Updated 10 April 2008: For further information contact Jennifer Rogers, tel 0117 931 7154, e-mail j.rogers@hefce.ac.uk]
Yours sincerely
Rama Thirunamachandran
Director (Research and Knowledge Transfer)
Annex A
ORSAS Allocations to HEIs 2006-7
| Institution | 2006/7 Allocation |
|---|---|
| Aston University | 56,414 |
| University of Bath | 180,050 |
| Birkbeck College | 107,284 |
| University of Birmingham | 551,535 |
| Bournemouth University | 5,000 |
| University of Bradford | 14,621 |
| University of Brighton | 5,000 |
| University of Bristol | 498,031 |
| Brunel University | 47,729 |
| Buckinghamshire Chilterns University Col | 8,944 |
| University of Cambridge | 1,952,700 |
| University of Central England | 5,000 |
| University of Central Lancashire | 9,987 |
| City University, London | 25,506 |
| Courtauld Institute of Art | 26,533 |
| Coventry University | 5,000 |
| Cranfield University | 41,936 |
| Dartington College of Arts | 5,000 |
| De Montfort University | 5,000 |
| University of Durham | 122,065 |
| University of East Anglia | 88,767 |
| University of East London | 5,000 |
| Institute of Education | 38,859 |
| University of Essex | 130,965 |
| University of Exeter | 83,364 |
| University of Gloucestershire | 5,599 |
| Goldsmiths College | 88,813 |
| University of Greenwich | 7,170 |
| University of Hertfordshire | 5,000 |
| University of Huddersfield | 5,666 |
| University of Hull | 31,928 |
| Imperial College | 852,542 |
| Keele University | 10,007 |
| University of Kent | 54,216 |
| King's College London | 284,171 |
| Kingston University | 14,974 |
| Lancaster University | 129,544 |
| University of Leeds | 525,301 |
| University of Leicester | 73,129 |
| University of Lincoln | 5,000 |
| University of Liverpool | 229,158 |
| Liverpool John Moores University | 11,824 |
| University of London | 7,350 |
| London Sch of Economics & Political Sci | 148,549 |
| London Sch. of Hygiene & Tropical Med. | 61,148 |
| London South Bank University | 6,083 |
| Loughborough University | 106,725 |
| University of Luton | 5,000 |
| University of Manchester | 1,020,789 |
| Manchester Metropolitan University | 19,209 |
| Middlesex University | 5,000 |
| University of Newcastle | 299,748 |
| Northumbria University | 6,549 |
| University of Nottingham | 272,824 |
| Nottingham Trent University | 6,735 |
| Open University | 37,515 |
| School of Oriental and African Studies | 89,200 |
| University of Oxford | 1,552,025 |
| Oxford Brookes University | 5,000 |
| School of Pharmacy | 26,707 |
| University of Plymouth | 16,993 |
| University of Portsmouth | 15,331 |
| Queen Mary, University of London | 86,642 |
| University of Reading | 65,783 |
| Royal Academy of Music | 17,004 |
| Royal College of Art | 5,000 |
| Royal Holloway, University of London | 124,650 |
| Royal Veterinary College | 7,384 |
| St George's Hospital Medical School | 5,049 |
| University of Salford | 64,104 |
| University of Sheffield | 393,054 |
| Sheffield Hallam University | 5,000 |
| University of Southampton | 359,755 |
| University of Sunderland | 7,205 |
| University of Surrey | 209,799 |
| University of Sussex | 112,725 |
| University College London | 1,043,503 |
| University of Warwick | 277,689 |
| University of Westminster | 30,897 |
| Wimbledon School of Art | 5,162 |
| University of Wolverhampton | 5,000 |
| University of York | 111,784 |
