Recurrent funding

For the academic year 2023-24, the overall non-capital grant we distributed is £1,439 million. Of this, we distributed £1,412 million to providers through our recurrent funding streams.

Recurrent funding allocations were made to providers that are in the 'approved (fee cap)' category of the OfS Register. Initial 2023-24 allocations of funding for 342 providers that had registered in that category were released on 6 July 2023. Updated 2023-24 allocations of funding for 344 providers that had registered in that category were released on 11 July 2024. Final 2023-24 allocations of funding for 344 providers that had registered in that category were released on 26 July 2024.

For details of the capital funding distributed for 2023-24, please see our capital funding pages.

Key documents

These documents describe how we calculated our funding for 2023-24.

• Funding for academic year 2023-24
  This document summarises the budgets available to us for 2023-24.
• Recurrent funding for 2023-24
  This document summarises how we split our budget into different funding streams and the totals allocated to each provider.
• Guide to funding 2023-24
  This document provides an introduction to how we allocated our 2023-24 funding.

Our funding streams

Of the £1,412 million of recurrent funding distributed for 2023-24, we distributed:

• £1,038 million in funding for high-cost courses, provided to help support the extra costs associated with teaching particular subjects.
• £316 million in funding for student access and success, provided to support student access and success for particular student groups. This included Uni Connect (£30 million for 2023-24).
• £58 million in funding for specialist providers, provided to support certain specialist institutions with world-leading teaching. For further details, please see our funding for specialist providers pages.

For the academic year 2022-23, the overall non-capital grant we distributed was £1,373 million. Of this, we distributed £1,347 million to providers through our recurrent funding streams.

Initial 2022-23 allocations of funding for 345 providers that had registered in that category were released on 15 July 2022.

Our approach to allocating capital funding has changed for 2022-23. Further details can be found on our capital funding pages.

Key documents

These documents describe how we calculated our funding for 2022-23.

• Funding for academic year 2022-23
  This document summarises the budgets available to us for 2022-23.
• Recurrent funding for 2022-23
  This document summarises how we split our budget into different funding streams and the totals allocated to each provider.
• Guide to funding 2022-23
  This document provides an introduction to how we allocated our 2022-23 funding.

Our funding streams

Of the £1,347 million of recurrent funding distributed for 2022-23, we distributed:

• £974 million in funding for high-cost courses, provided to help support the extra costs associated with teaching particular subjects.
• £310 million in funding for student access and success, provided to support student access and success for particular student groups. This included Uni Connect (£30 million for 2022-23).
• £58 million in funding for specialist providers, provided to support certain specialist institutions with world-leading teaching. Allocations for this funding stream were announced in December 2022. For further details, please see our funding for specialist providers pages.

For the academic year 2021-22, the overall grant we distributed was £1,437 million.

Of this, we distributed £1,266 million to providers through our recurrent funding streams.

Recurrent funding allocations are made to providers that are in the 'approved (fee cap)' category of the OfS Register.

Our initial allocations of funding for 2021-22 were released on 29 July 2021 and included 335 providers that had registered in that category.

Key documents

These documents describe how we calculated our funding for 2021-22.

• Recurrent funding for 2021-22
  This document summarises how we split our budget into different funding streams and the totals allocated to each provider.
• Recurrent funding for 2021-22: outcomes of consultation
  This document summarises our decisions on funding methods and the outcomes from our recent consultation on changes to funding for 2021-22.

Our funding streams

The majority of our funding for 2021-22 (£1,266 million) was allocated as recurrent teaching grant:

• Funding for high-cost courses (£900 million for 2021-22) was provided to help support the extra costs associated with teaching particular subjects.
• Funding for student access and success (£313 million for 2021-22) was provided to support student access and success for particular student groups. This includes Uni Connect (£40 million for 2021-22).
• Funding for specialist providers (£53 million for 2021-22) was provided to support certain specialist institutions with world-leading teaching.

For the academic year 2020-21 the overall grant we distributed was £1,426 million.

Of this we distributed £1,255 million to providers through our recurrent funding streams.

Recurrent funding allocations are made to providers that are in the 'approved (fee cap)' category of the OfS Register.

Our initial allocations of funding for 2020-21 were released on 12 May 2020 and included over 320 providers that had registered in that category by 14 April 2020.

We also set aside budget provision to make further allocations to providers which register in the same category after 14 April and before the end of the 2020-21 academic year (31 July 2021).

We released these funds throughout the year. We will not reduce the allocations announced on 12 May to extend funding to providers that join the OfS Register later.

Key documents

These documents describe how we calculated our funding for 2020‑21.

• Guide to funding 2020-21: How the Office for Students allocates money to higher education providers
  This document provides a general overview of how we calculated our funding.
• Recurrent funding for 2020-21
  This document summarises how we split our budget into different funding streams and the totals allocated to each provider.
• Funding for academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21: OfS board decisions and outcomes of consultation
  This document summarises the board’s decisions on funding methods and the outcomes from our recent consultation on our approach to securing savings to the recurrent grant.

Our funding streams

The majority of our funding for 2020-21 (£1,255 million) was allocated as recurrent teaching grant:

• Funding for high-cost courses (£895 million for 2020-21) was provided to help support the extra costs associated with teaching particular subjects.
• Funding for student access and success (£316 million for 2020-21) was provided to support student access and success for particular student groups. This includes Uni Connect (£60 million for 2020-21).
• Funding for specialist providers (£43 million for 2020-21) was provided to support certain specialist institutions with world-leading teaching.

Further information on our funding streams and how they are allocated can be found in our Guide to funding 2020-21.

Following a strategic guidance letter in January 2020 from the Secretary of State for Education, which announced a reduction to recurrent teaching grant for the financial year, we secured savings of £26 million from funds not yet committed and have updated the 2019-20 budgets accordingly.

For full details, please see Funding for academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21: OfS board decisions and outcomes of consultation.

For the academic year 2019-20 the overall grant we distributed was £1,449 million.

Of this we distributed £1,309 million to providers through our recurrent teaching funding streams.

Recurrent funding allocations are made to providers that are in the 'approved (fee cap)' category of the OfS register.

Our initial allocations of funding for 2019-20 were released on 9 May 2019 and included 304 providers that had registered in that category by 15 April 2019.

We set aside £14 million to make further allocations to providers which registered in the same category after 15 April and before the end of the 2019-20 academic year (31 July 2020).

We released these funds throughout the year. We will not reduce the allocations announced on 9 May to extend funding to providers that join the OfS register later.

Key documents

These documents describe how we calculated our funding for 2019‑20.

• Guide to funding 2019-20 
  This document provides a general overview of how we calculated our funding.
• Recurrent funding for 2019-20
  This document summarises how we split our budget into different funding streams and the totals allocated to each provider.
• Funding for 2019-20: OfS board decisions  
  This document summarises the board’s decisions on funding methods.

Our funding streams

The majority of our funding for 2019-20 (£1,309 million) is allocated as recurrent teaching grant:

• High-cost subject funding (£713 million for 2019-20) is provided to help support the extra costs associated with teaching particular subjects.
• Targeted allocations (£536 million total for 2019-20) are provided to support important or vulnerable features of higher education in accordance with key policy initiatives.
• National Collaborative Outreach Programme (£60 million for 2019‑20), known as Uni Connect from January 2020. Further information on our funding streams and how they are allocated can be found in the ‘Guide to funding 2019-20’.

For the academic year 2018-19, we allocated funding to 315 higher education providers.

In May 2018 we announced these funding allocations, which total £1,538 million.

We have calculated teaching and capital funding using:

• Student numbers reported in the 2017 HESES and HEIFES surveys
• Methods agreed by our board in March 2018.

Key documents

These documents describe how we have calculated our funding for 2018-19.

• Guide to funding 2018-19 – provides a general overview of how we calculate our funding.
• Recurrent and formula capital funding for 2018-19 – summarises how we split our budget into different funding streams and the totals allocated to each provider. (We published a revised version of Annex A to this document in October 2018 to show updated allocations for some providers, arising from changes to their student data and for other reasons.)
• Teaching funding in the period from April 2018 to July 2019 – summarises the board’s decisions on funding methods.

Our funding streams

The majority of our funding for 2018-19 (£1,290 million) was allocated as recurrent teaching grant.

Our ‘Guide to funding’ provides further detail on these funding streams.

Recurrent grant: high-cost subject funding

This funding totals £681 million for 2018-19 and is provided to help support the extra costs associated with teaching particular subjects.

Some subjects need particular facilities or equipment to teach and so are more expensive than other subjects which are classroom based.

Recurrent grant: targeted allocations

These total £549 million for 2018-19. Our targeted allocations are provided to support important or vulnerable features of higher education, and reflect policy areas highlighted by the government as important.

For example, we have distributed £72 million to providers to support successful outcomes for part-time undergraduates.

A full list of our targeted allocations is in our ‘Guide to funding’.

Other funding streams

• National Collaborative Outreach Programme
  The recurrent teaching grant total also includes £60 million for the National Collaborative Outreach Programme.
• National facilities and regulatory initiatives
  For 2018-19, this totals £51 million. This is used to secure change or fund activities that can’t be addressed through our funding to providers
• Knowledge exchange funding
  For 2018-19, this totals £47 million. This funding comes from our teaching grant budget, but it is administered by Research England according to a method agreed with us.
  The funds support the contribution higher education makes to the economy and society.
• Capital funding for teaching
  For 2018-19, this totals £150 million. Further information on capital funding can be found in our capital funding pages.