Students: Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many 16 to 18-year-old students enrolled at further education colleges in England in the 2025-26 academic year are currently unfunded; what estimate she has made of the number of students who may be denied places in 2026-27 because of funding constraints; and what assessment she has made of the impact of unfunded places on skills shortages in construction, health and social care.
Answered by Josh MacAlister
The department funds any 16 to 18-year-old who wants a place in post-16 education. Institutions receive funding for all their students, but on a lagged approach, meaning the funding in each academic year is based on the number of students in the previous year.
The department recognises that where an institution makes a particularly significant expansion in student numbers in a single year, that can cause cost pressures. For that reason, we provide exceptional in-year growth (EIYG) funding. We are investing £87 million to fund exceptional in-year growth this year.
In the 2026/27 academic year, we have allocated nearly £9 billion in 16 to 19 programme funding to colleges, schools and other institutions. No young person should be denied a place due to funding constraints as institutions can be confident their funding will reflect student numbers.
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