The Further and Higher Education Panel is pleased to announce the appointment of Kirsten Gillingham as its new chair. Kirsten has been a Panel member since 2002 and was vice-chair from 2003-05. She worked as finance director at the University of Brighton from 2001-2005 and in the last two years as a freelance consultant. She has worked in university financial management at a senior advisory level. In this role, she has also worked with and the Learning and Skills Council on the introduction of their new Framework for Excellence, particularly focussing on measurement, benchmarking and assessment of value for money.
Kirsten will work to ensure that the Panel identifies where CIPFA’s expertise in financial management and governance can be used to best effect.
Current Developments in Further and Higher Education – London, 22 May 2008
This event is aimed at finance practitioners and those involved in strategic and corporate issues in further and higher education. It will cover:
- The policy context
- Finance in support of corporate plans
- Covenant strength
- Employment law update
- Technical accounting update
- Demand - led funding
- Accountability in higher education.
For further details visit: http://www.cipfa.org.uk/shop
Revisions to the Financial Memorandum
CIPFA has commented on the HEFCE’s proposed changes to the Financial Memorandum and Audit Code of Practice. CIPFA believes that the document is better set out and accessible than its predecessors and compiling one source of information is to be commended.
Draft SORP Accounting for Further and Higher Education
CIPFA offered comments on the draft SORP earlier this year. CIPFA welcomes the new structure of the draft SORP. In our view it now follows a more logical format . We also welcome the aim of enhancing the guidance overall and this can be seen quite clearly in the additional and expanded sections that the SORP Board has introduced.
Further Education Audit Code of Practice
CIPFA offered comments on the Welsh Assembly Government’s proposed changes to the Further Education Audit Code of Practice. CIPFA welcomes the intention that the code is not a manual and that it is for colleges to develop their own audit manuals which detail specific arrangements and procedures for audit related matters.
The full text of the Panel’s consultation responses can be found at http://www.cipfa.org.uk/panels/fehe/responses.cfm
A Guide for Finance Committee Members in Further and Higher Education
The governing body has ultimate responsibility for a further or higher education institution’s finances, but delegates specific powers and processes to committees. These committees are accountable to the governing body. Monitoring and planning for the institution’s financial position and financial control systems is normally undertaken by a finance committee ( it may also may be known as a finance and general purposes or employment and finance committee ). Effective governance and financial management depends on good quality, timely and relevant information forming the basis for decision making, scrutiny and action planning. The role of the finance committee is key in ensuring that the governing body has adequate information to enable it to discharge its financial responsibilities and that the institution remains financially viable at all times.
This publication provides a practical source of guidance and advice for finance committee members in further and higher education. It will also be valuable to other governing body members who retain some financial responsibilities and to other interested parties. It describes finance committee members’ roles and responsibilities in detail and provides the context in which such committees operate.
There is emphasis throughout the guide on ‘questions to ask’ to help committee members to assess the effectiveness of their own committee. Answers to these questions will also form a useful basis for any future actions.
To purchase a copy visit :
http://secure.cipfa.org.uk/cgi-bin/CIPFA.storefront/EN/product/ED021
Partnerships and Other Alliances – case studies from the further and higher education sectors
In recent years there has been major diversification and expansion in the further and higher education sectors. This in turn has increased the complexity of institutions’ operations and the need to fulfil them both efficiently and effectively. Funding systems have continued to evolve and resources are limited. Therefore, there are strong incentives for institutions to work together and with other partners by entering into partnerships and alliances to assist in meeting their many different challenges.
Partnerships take many forms and raise a whole variety of management challenges. In particular, a new set of skills and competencies are required for those involved in the new organisational arrangements. At the same time, methods of evaluating partnerships and alliances to establish their effectiveness need to be introduced.
Successful partnerships and alliances can be hugely beneficial to institutions and the services to their students, but equally, insufficient prior consideration or poorly operated ones can be extremely costly, have a negative impact on services and become a significant drain on scarce resources.
CIPFA’s Further and Higher Education Panel believe that the sectors’ institutions could benefit from sharing the experiences of successful partnerships and highlighting the key areas including potential pitfalls and risks. Accordingly, this volume has been developed by describing four very different partnerships and alliances in place in four very different institutions. It also contains a section at the beginning which develops key themes and provides guidance and advice for institutions that are considering entering into partnerships or alliances, which should be considered along side the examples shown.
The volume illustrates that universities and colleges are adopting a variety of approaches to forming partnerships and alliances and provides an excellent opportunity for practitioners to learn from other colleagues experiences. We trust it will be of interest and assist with institutions’ future developments in this area.
To purchase a copy visit :
http://secure.cipfa.org.uk/cgi-bin/CIPFA.storefront/EN/product/ED018_
Further information on the Further and Higher Education Panel’s forthcoming guidance will be included in future editions of this bulletin. For information on all CIPFA’s publications, please visit the CIPFA shop at www.cipfa.org.uk/shop
The Financial Management Panel is seeking case studies from across a range of public bodies to illustrate how they have tackled either evaluating individual partnerships or systematically assessing their overall partnership activities.
Click here to download the full article
by Stephen Court, Senior Research Officer at the University and College Union.
Despite receiving real-terms funding increases, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is busy making value-for-money savings, with science and second-chance students amongst the losers
To read the full text view
http://www.publicfinance.co.uk
This article describes an activity-based management (ABM) model which has been successfully used to cost institutions’ activities to appropriate levels of focus, linking the activities to income streams and arriving at a form of value added.
This article was first published in the November 2007 edition of Public Money and Management (PMM) – click here to download the article in PDF format.
Further information on PMM and details of how to subscribe can be found at www.cipfa.org.uk/pt/pmm
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