1. Funding Higher Education:
adequate steering instrument?
IMHE General conference
Paris, 17-19 September 2012
Noël Vercruysse
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

2. Outline
• Highereducation in Flanders
• Steeringinstruments
• Funding model of highereducation in Flanders
– Architecture
– Parameters
– Calculation
– Learning account
• Concludingremarks: strengthsandweaknesses
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

3. HigherEducation in Flanders
• Institutions:
• 6 universities:
– 3 public universities
– 3 private universities
• 21 university colleges:
– 7 public
– 14 private
• Specializedinstitutions: Management
schools, Schools fortheological (protestant)
education
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

4. HigherEducation in Flanders
• Qualificationsframework
– Associatedegrees: 90-120 ECTS
– Bachelor degrees: 180 ECTS
– Master degrees: 60-120-180 ECTS
– Advanced bachelor degrees courses: 60 ECTS
– Advanced master degree courses: 60-120 ECTS
– PhD: 4 years
• Binary system:
– Universitiesvsuniversity colleges
– Professionallyoriented bachelor
degreeprogrammesvsacademicallyoriented bachelor
degreeprogrammes
– All masters are academicallyoriented
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

5. Doctorate
(universities)
master
after
master
Master
(min 60 ects, universities
and university colleges)
bachelor preparatory
after Bridging programme
bachelor programme
Professional bachelor Academic bachelor
(180 ects university colleges) (180 ects, universities
and university colleges)
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

6. HigherEducation in Flanders
• numbers
2011-2012 enrollments diplomas
Bachelor - prof 95045 19624
Bachelor – acad - UC 19884 3865
Master UC 8653 4593
Total UC 123582 28082
Bachelor-acad –univ 49959 10234
Master 29284 12445
PhD 8245 1428
Total UNIV 88748 24107
Bridging programs 6107
Advanced masters 4262 1790
Advanced bachelors 2709 1305
total 231719 55224
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

7. Highereducation in Flanders
• Staff(all FTE)
• Universities:
– Academicstaff (including PhD students): 13820
– Administrativeandtechnicalstaff: 6965
• University Colleges:
– Academicstaff: 8380
– Administrativeandtechnicalstaff: 3210
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

8. HigherEducation in Flanders
• Otherfigures:
• Funding:
– 1,5 billioneurosfrom the ministry of education
– 150 millioneurosfrom the ministry of research
– 300 millioneurosfrom the research council and the
innovation council
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

9. SteeringHigherEducation
• Jongbloed distinguishes 4 instruments
– Regulations
– Funding
– Public production
– dialogue
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

10. Funding model - aims
• Tomaintainandenhancequality of teaching and research
• Toincrease the opportunitiesforstudents of all types of
background to get access to HE andtobesupportedtowards
a degree (supportingdiversity)
• ToenableHEIstodevelop more flexiblelearningpaths
(supporting LLL)
• ToencourageHEIstodevelopopportunitieswhich are more
suitabletomatureandemployedstudents
• Tomaintainandenhance efficiency andeffectiveness of the
highereducationprovisionboth at system andinstitutional
level
• To share responsibilitiesamonggovernment,
institutionsandstudents
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

11. Funding model - architecture
• Overall architecture:
• Teaching and research block grant
• Targeted research block grant
• Block grantforinfrastructure
• Block grantfor student facilitiesand student
support services
• Targetedallocationsforwidening access
• The closed overall budget is distributedto the
HEIsaccording a complex fundingformula
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

12. Funding Model – parameters
• Teaching and research block grantcontains:
– A fixedallocationfor teaching: 8-15%
– An allocationvaryingaccording the volume of teaching
activity
– A fixedallocationfor research
– An allocationvaryingaccording the volume of research
activity
• Factors influencing the calculation:
– Input parameters: the number of registered units of credit
newlyenrolledstudents have been enrolled
– Output parameters: the number of creditsawarded, the
number of degreesawarded (including a diploma-bonus),
the number of publicationsandcitations)
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

13. Funding Model - calculation
• The numbers are calculated as anaverage of 5
academicyears
• Unit of credit (comparableto the taximeter model in
Denmark) pertainingto fulltime students as well parttime
students, bothdegreestudentsand single course students
• Studyprogrammes taken into account:
– Allinitial bachelor and master degreeprogrammes
– Subsequent bachelor programmes are
onlypartiallyfundedandsubsequent master programmes are
notfunded
• Weighting factors according the discipline rangingfrom 1 to
3 (4,0 and 4,1 formedicineandsomeperforming arts
andmusic)
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

14. Funding model – parameters (2)
• Extra weightings factors:
– Studentsfromunderrepresentedsocio-economicgroups
– Disabledstudents
– Studentscombiningworkingandlearning
• Evolution of the overall budget:
– Yearlyadjustementto the prices
– Adjustementwheneverthere is anincrease of at least
2% of the volume of teaching activity (the total
volume of the number of funded unit of credits)
comparedto a reference volume, the overall budget
increaseswith 2%
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

15. Learning Account
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

16. Incomestreams of a university
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

17. Funding model - remarks
• The model is demand-drivenandthere is competition
• Closed overall budgets: competitionamongHEIs but ifallinstitutions
are performing the overall budget increases;
• Performance based system using a wide range of parameters:
greatautonomy of the institutionsto set
theirownprioritiesandavoidinguniformity;
• 5 – year timeframe for the data: stability: limitedyearly changes in
the institutional budget but notrewardingforfastgrowingHEIs
• Incentives forwideningparticipationand a betterarticulationbetween
the professionallyorientedprogrammesand the master programmes
(students in bridgingprogrammes are fullyfunded)
• An equal treatment of full-timeandpart-timestudents
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education

18. Funding model – remarks (2)
• The funding model is notrelatedto the quality
• High pressure on the quality of the data needed
• The model is lackingpredictabilityfor the individual HEI since the
allocation is depending on the performance of the otherinstitutions
• There is the dangerthat the institutionswill copy the
nationalallocation model fortheirinternalallocation of money
among the departments
• Weighting factors are no longerreflecting the actualcosts; they are
favouring the naturalsciencesand life sciences at the disavantage of
humanitiesandsocialsciences
• There is no real incentive for the internationalization
• The model is discouragingresearcherstoundertaken research that is
relevant to policy making or society
Department of Education and Training
Division for higher and adult education