Technical note on Level 4/5 costing - course contribution

This note simply summarises some of the key findings and observations from the data on costs and course contributions associated with the delivery of level 4/5 programmes and therefore this paper is broadly descriptive in nature. [...] We are unable to comment on the nature of staff contracts at FECs or HEIs from the data collected for the purposes of this project however mixed contracts for staff teaching on FE and HE are not uncommon in colleges. [...] FECs: The courses include HNs and Foundation Degrees and these are delivered on a full time basis although in some cases it seems colleges use an in-fill model for full time and part time delivery The average tuition fee 9 charged by FECs is £7,574, the lowest is £5,895 and the highest is £9,000. [...] Staffing costs as a percentage of income from the programmes varied from 47.1 percent to 55.7 percent at the two HEIs delivering classroom based courses and 73.3 percent for the level 5 apprenticeship delivered at the third HEI. [...] FECs: The biggest factors affecting contribution at FECs are the income per student, the class sizes followed by the GLH for the course, and whether there are exceptional support costs to drive up the student numbers.