§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) if he will make it his policy to instruct the Higher Education Funding Council to make restructuring funds available to university institutions which are in financial difficulties and where redundancies are likely;
(2) by what authority the Higher Education Funding Council may fund early retirement packages for university staffs when these include the commitment to re-employ at the same university those staff as consultants fulfilling comparable duties to those they carried out prior to their retirement;
(3) if the Higher Education Funding Council has made funds available for early retirement packages for senior employees at the university of London;
(4) if his Department was consulted by the Higher Education Funding Council about the reorganisation of the management structure of the university of London regarding the posts of principal, director of administration, and director of finance.
§ Mr. BoswellUniversities and colleges are autonomous bodies responsible for the management of their own financial and administrative affairs, including the deployment of staff.
Should a university experience financial difficulties, the Higher Education Funding Council for England would take action to monitor the position of the institution concerned to ensure public funds were not at risk.
133WThe HEFCE does not allocate funds for early retirement packages. It is for the institutions themselves to determine staff salaries and any early retirement payments they choose to make from within the funds at their disposal.
The Department was not consulted about the reorganisation of the university of London's senior management, nor would we expect this. Any such reorganisation is a matter for the institution concerned.
§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Education what scrutiny his Department gives to the conduct and funding arrangements of each university following the creation of the Higher Education Funding Council.
§ Mr. BoswellThe Department for Education does not scrutinise the conduct and funding arrangements of individual universities. This would not be consistent with the Government's limited role of providing the general framework for an efficient higher education system nor with institutional autonomy which is enshrined in law.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England is responsible for the allocation of public funds to individual universities; the terms and conditions for use of the considerable public funds at its disposal are clearly specified in the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 and in a financial memorandum agreed with the Department. The HEFCE is required to ensure all appropriate steps are taken to safeguard the use of public funds.