18 December 2024 
Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
It’s been an extremely challenging year for many in the sector, but we hope that you’ve found BUFDG to be a supportive network and useful resource for you and your institution. When times are hard its easy to forget how our little sector (in the grand scheme of things) makes an outsized contribution to the wealth and wellbeing of the UK, and to human progress across the globe. We’re proud to be part of it and of our relatively-small contribution, and we hope you manage to find a moment over the holidays to feel proud of yours too!
We’re looking forward to 2025 and we have ideas about how we can be an even more efficient and effective service for our colleagues in finance and the broader sector. We’ll be sharing these in the next few months but, in the meantime, here’s a reminder of the breadth of our supporting activities. And, as always, do let us know if you think there’s anything we can do better.
We’re wishing all of our members and supporters a restful, well-deserved break. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Karel, Amanda, and the rest of the BUFDG team!
SECTOR
UCAS has published the end-of-cycle data for 2024, showing a 2.9% increase in the number of 18-year-olds from the UK accepted at university or college, reflecting the demographic increases, and a 1.9% increase in students of all ages, alongside a 2.3% decrease in international students applying through UCAS. A snazzy dashboard has been made available to interrogate the data in more detail. David Kernohan at Wonkhe has done his usual deep-dive into the figures over at Wonkhe.
The OfS has published proposals for a new five-year strategy covering 2025-2030. The strategy aims to refocus the regulator around three core priorities of quality, student experience / interest, and sector resilience / sustainability. The announcement is unpacked by Wonkhe’s Debbie McVitty, while GuildHE’s CFO Mark Taylor makes suggestions for improvements to the ‘financial sustainability’ aspect of regulation. There’s a specific consultation event for universities online on 16 January.
The 5 December saw a long debate in the commons on the financial sustainability of universities. The in-depth discussion included TPS, research funding, collaboration (even NORMAN got a mention, though not by name), VAT on shared services, and the UUK blueprint, among other areas. The government contribution was limited, but Janet Daby, the under-secretary for Education did shed some light on the impact of fee and NI changes, saying that "The OfS estimates that the fee uplift will represent up to an additional £371 million of annual fee income”, with the NI contribution changes for employers resulting in “additional costs for the sector of £133 million in 2024-25 and of £430 million in each year from 2025-26”. She also added that “the Department plans to publish its own estimates shortly, as part of its assessment of the impact of the planned tuition fee and student finance changes." We’ll be keeping an eye out.
DEVOLUTION AND GROWTH
The government has published its white paper on devolution, outlining plans to streamline local government and ensure the whole country is covered by ‘Strategic Authorities’ each with elected mayors. In this government’s answer to ‘levelling-up’, the authorities (including those that currently exist) will have a closer relationship with UKRI and associated innovation funding. The team at Wonkhe have had a first stab at what it might mean for HE, and there are a number of devolution think-pieces on HEPI.
In related news, last week PwC / Lloyds held a launch event in Birmingham for their report on Drivers of Growth, looking at the role of universities in contributing to national prosperity. It also examines universities regional impact, and their civic contributions, and makes the case for more long-term partnerships, aided by a “a ‘single front door’ policy – a welcoming entry point that clearly communicates an institution's offerings to potential partners, backed by staff who are experts in engagement and business development – for external enquiries”. The foreword has been written by Nick Hillman and, elsewhere on HEPI, Newcastle P-VC Prof. Jane Robinson expands on some of the key themes, while Cambridge’s Prof. Gill Evans imagines the future of the Oxford to Cambridge ARC.
Mills & Reeve, in collaboration with Wonkhe, have published a report on the resilience and sustainability of the English HE system. It makes the case that in a more regionally-connected and partnership-based sector, “the thinking needs to start now about how to enable providers to take part in the strategic discussions and scenario plans that can help them to imagine that kind of future, and develop the skills to operate in the new ways that a different HE landscape could require”.
The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) has published its annual State of the Relationship report for 2024. The picture is less rosy than in prior years, with analysis showing a 5% decrease in interactions between universities and businesses compared to prior years, and a 0.6% decline in income from Knowledge Exchange activities. The report was followed by a recent ONS data release that highlighted a worrying decline in business R&D spending in the UK, with almost a 3% reduction between 2022 and 2023, and over 6% since 2021. NCUB covered the announcement in a press release. The news comes alongside an announcement that the government Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee will be launching an inquiry into how science and technology innovation can boost economic growth. Timely.
WALES
The timing of the announcement means we just missed it in the last Digest, but the Welsh government has announced it will increase fees in line with England from 25/26, which will see Welsh students studying in England or Wales paying £9,535 per year. The fee rise is accompanied by a 1.6% increase (albeit below inflation) in maintenance support for eligible Welsh students. The announcement was followed by a brief discussion in the Senedd.
SCOTLAND
Also just missing the last Digest, the Scottish Government has published its budget for 25-26. The announcement sees a recommitment to the principle of free tuition in Higher Education, but shows a mixed picture for funding, with a potential increase in the unit of resource, but a real-terms reduction in funding once inflation and NI rises are taken into account. The news is explained in more detail by Jim Dickinson at Wonkhe, as well as in the Times Higher and the Scotsman.
Key announcements for income tax include freezing of income tax rates for 2025/26, higher, advanced and top rate income tax thresholds frozen, and tweaks to the starter, basic, and intermediate rate banding. Scotland’s Tax Strategy: Building on our Tax Principles has also been published to set out the Scottish Government’s medium-term ambitions for how the tax system should develop. The CIOT has responded to Scottish Budget, confirming that Scottish taxpayers will pay more tax than someone south of the border at £30,318.
The Scottish Government’s Learning Directorate has issued its Student Finance and Wellbeing Study for 23/24, and finds that more than half of students reported that they “had experienced financial difficulty, ranging from 50% of postgraduates, 56% of HN/undergraduate to 61% of FE students. Two-thirds (66%) of students from under-represented groups reported that they were experiencing financial difficulties”. It was the first such research in 15 years, and was based on a representative survey of 2429 students from 16 Scottish colleges and 16 Scottish universities, and a small number of follow-up qualitative interviews. Wonkhe has commentary.
TAX AND PAYROLL
Click on the link to find an update on our work on the Economic Crime Levy that some members that are registered with the FCA are having to pay. This includes draft wording for letters to be sent to the FCA requesting deregistration OR requesting clarirfication on whether your activity is subject to Money Laundering Regulation. It also includes this Shakespeare Martineau report.
Andrea has made a start on looking at various key areas and pulling the guidance together in once place. In the last 2 weeks she has collated this for online learning, and transfer pricing.
Six Payroll & Employment tax Group meetings were held up and down the country in the last few weeks. Alongside Paul Moreels from KPMG, Julia listened to all the comments and discussions and has put together a summary for those not able to attend, or who are interested in seeing whether different regions have similar experiences. Find the article and slides here.
Now that HMRC have had an opportunity to work with the new offsetting rules since April 2024, they have published a set of scenarios to better demonstrate how offsetting works in practice. You’ll see from the examples, and appears to be the case in practice, the taxes paid by the individual/their PSC will not wipe away the deemed employer liabilities, but it’s certainly better than nothing.
As usual, you can read all the latest tax and payroll news, and find out about all the forthcoming events, in the TaxHE newsletter.
PROCUREMENT
The annual Procurement Value Survey launched yesterday (17 December) - those with authorised PVS access to respond to the survey should have received an email, but if you think you should have and you don’t have the email, contact Ashley.
The latest update on the Transforming Public Procurement programme is available, including details on secondary legislation and go-live and the long-awaited Competitive Flexible Procedure Guidance and Templates.
The Procurement Specific Questionnaire is now published on the Procurement Pathway Tool and the GCC. The Cabinet Office are awaiting Ministerial sign-off on the PPNs, which will be shared if they receive sign-off in the new year. Senior Policy Lead, Sam Russell, will be presenting at two Communities of Practice sessions on the new PSQ in January. Please see booking links below.
The slides from the Cabinet Office update to the HEPA Head of Procurement turnover groups this month are available – you can download them here.
Jisc are pleased to announce the launch of the new Electronic Research and Laboratory Notebook DPS – you can find out more information about the agreement here.
MISCELLANEOUS
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DesNez) has published its plan for decarbonising the UK energy supply by 2030. The plan will “will unleash £40 billion a year of mainly private investment in homegrown clean power projects and infrastructure across the country”, with the additional aim of stabilising and ultimately reducing home energy prices.
Many universities are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and have monitoring and reporting obligations (or have related arrangements with third parties). These are checkable on the FCA register. However, not all are aware of what those obligations are, who they can effect, and what their implications might be. Browne Jacobson are running a free webinar on Wednesday 22 January covering just that, and will be of interest to FDs/CFOs, legal practitioners, accountable officers and registered personnel among others.
The FRC has published a 3-year draft strategy for the years 2025-28, which is currently out for consultation. The strategy is “a pivotal step in shaping our future priorities and ensuring that we continue to uphold public trust and confidence in corporate governance, corporate reporting, audit and actuarial work, while contributing positively to the environment for economic growth and investment”. The deadline for responses is 6 February.
KPMG has published a video case study of its work with the University of St Andrews, modernising and implementing a new cloud-based finance system. St Andrews were one of the respondents to the BUFDG / KPMG guide on finance system implementation, Ahead in the Cloud. It’s still very relevant and an informative read, and available on the BUFDG website.
BDO are running their annual Charity Finance update webinar on 15 January. In the session BDO’s experts will examine the latest finance developments in the charity sector to bring attendees up to date on key changes in reporting, legislation and case law, tax and governance. The session is free to attend, and is “suitable for charity finance directors and audit committee chairs, as well as other staff and trustees involved in finance.”
Our Job of the Fortnight is for a Head of Financial Accounting at Plymouth Marjon University. The successful candidate will be a qualified accountant who will “take a senior and overarching lead on the technical financial accounting and accountability for the University”, and will “provide financial leadership to the team, optimising financial performance and strategy to best support Marjon 2030.” The deadline for applications is 12 January.
As usual, there are lots of other vacancies listed on the BUFDG jobs page.
