Executive Summary
This report reviews the UK education system, including schools, colleges and
universities, looking at levels of funding, where income is spent and trends in
supply resulting from recent legislative, administrative and curricular
changes.
Legislative changes since the beginning of the 1980s have dramatically altered
the face of the UK education service. Among the most dramatic have been the
implementation of the National Curriculum, the introduction of grant-maintained
schools, the transference of colleges of further education and sixth-form
colleges to an independent sector and the change to university status for
polytechnics.
UK net education and related expenditure totalled £29.5bn in 1991/1992,
the most recent year for which official figures are available, 10.7% higher
than the previous year. Education expenditure currently accounts for 5.1% of UK
gross domestic product. It is estimated that expenditure rose to approximately
£32bn in 1992/1993.
In
1991/1992, there were 37,047 educational establishments in the UK, a fall of
18.7% compared to 1970/1971.
The 34,466 schools, which included nursery, primary, secondary, non-maintained,
city technology colleges and special institutions, educated nearly 9.2 million
students in 1991/1992. Local education authority (LEA) expenditure on schools,
youth and community service and education support services totalled
£20.8bn in 1991/1992, 13% greater than the previous year.
The Education Reform Act of 1988 made provision for schools to opt out of local
authority control, provided that parental approval has been obtained via a
ballot and that application has been made to the Secretary of State for
Education for grant-maintained status. At June 1994, there were 928
grant-maintained schools, of which 594 were secondary. Government predictions
of the rate of take-up of grant-maintained status have not been met.
In 1993, there were around 2,430 independent schools educating 578,399 pupils.
The pupil role in the independent sector fell for the third year running to
1994, as recessionary pressures and increasing school fees have forced some
parents to withdraw their children. The number of children receiving help with
school fees rose from 123,346 in 1992/1993 to 126,522 in 1993/1994, nearly 22%
of all independent school pupils.
In 1991/1992, 67.8% of pupils aged 16 continued their education on a full-time
basis, 9.5% higher than in 1990/1991. Although a high proportion stays on at
school, 24% go to further education colleges to pursue their studies. There are
418 further education colleges and 115 sixth-form colleges in England and
Wales. From April 1993, these were transferred from local authority
administration to become independent institutions.
In 1991/1992, there were 733,000 higher education students attending the 48
universities and 83 polytechnics. From autumn 1992, polytechnics acquired
university status and both are now funded by the Higher Education Funding
Council. University income for 1992/1993 totalled £5.2bn, an increase of
22% compared to the previous year. The most significant change in income source
has been the gradual switch from exchequer block grant to fees and support
grants.
In
1991/1992, spending on text and library books totalled £95m in
LEA-maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in England, with an
additional £3.8m being spent in Wales. A further £593.4m was spent on
educational equipment, stationery and materials in schools in England and
Wales. Spending on equipment and furniture in universities totalled
£186.4m in 1991/1992, up 8% compared to the previous year, with an
additional £146.2m being spent on 73 libraries (including staffing) and
£79.4m on central university computers. Spending on text and library books
is expected to rise in 1992/1993 and 1993/1994 to cope with the shortfall in
text books. Spending on equipment and furniture in universities is also
expected to rise by around 5% in 1992/1993.
The academic and professional book sector accounts for 25.6% of total book
publishers' revenues. Since 1989, cutbacks in educational funding have led to
poor sales of academic books, while the introduction of the National Curriculum
has both benefited and caused problems for book publishers.
In 1993, an average LEA primary school had 12 computers and an average LEA
secondary school had 98 computers, representing 18 computers per pupil and 9
computers per pupil respectively. Surprisingly, independent schools have a
lower ratio of computers per pupil than either LEA or grant-maintained. The
Government has made considerable investment in IT in education including
significant grants to support software development and IT training for
teachers, in addition to the funding of research.
The boom in purchase of audio-visual equipment which was seen in the education
sector during the 1980s has waned, mainly as a result of lack of funding and
many institutions now are forced to make do with the equipment which they
already possess.
The education sector is a major stationery user; demanding office stationery,
school notebooks, examination paper, writing equipment and a myriad of other
items. Prices for educational stationery are very competitive while usage is
heavy. The negative effects of the recession are only having a limited
influence on demand, while the increasing numbers going on to further and
higher education have buoyed sales. Retail sales of educational stationery have
one major peak -- the end of summer, beginning of autumn term and a smaller
one pre-Christmas.
A
growing number of schools have instigated a relaxed uniform rule, with
flexibility allowing for different styles of dress, providing the colour is
correct. To kit a child out in school uniform is costly. The price of a new
school uniform may cost upwards of £115, depending on the quantity and
quality of items purchased. In addition, several different sizes of clothing
will be required over a child's school life from age 11 to 18, and the
cumulative cost for uniform may be enormous. In response to this, many schools
have introduced a second-hand clothing system, often run by parents, offering
uniform items at substantially reduced prices. A major influence of the UK
recession, especially for parents with children at fee-paying schools, is for
the entire uniform to be purchased from second-hand sources, whereas in the
past second-hand shops concentrated on expensive items, such as coats.
The
1988 Local Government Act extended the Government's compulsory competitive
tendering (CCT) to include building cleaning, school meals and other catering
services, grounds maintenance, street cleaning and refuse collection.
Expenditure on tendered services in nursery, primary and secondary schools in
1991/1992 totalled £25.2m. The Universities Statistical Record gives a
figure of £94.1m for cleaning and custodial services for 1992/1993, 4.7%
higher than the previous year. This implies that the average university spends
£1.96m on cleaning and security.
A
review commissioned by the Department for Education in 1986 estimated that
between 5% and 10% of authorities' maintenance budgets for schools is used to
repair wilful damage. In 1994, losses from schools due to vandalism, theft and
arson are estimated to cost LEAs about £70m. LEAs estimate that £439m
was required to fund its committed building work in schools in 1993/1994. The
annual capital guideline (central government support) for this work totalled
£266m. Spending by universities on repairs and maintenance totalled
£146.7m in 1992/1993, a considerable increase of 13.4% compared to
1990/1991, in addition to long term maintenance provision totalling
£77.2m. Grants for building work in universities totalled £24m in
1992/1993, a real growth of 93% since 1988/1989.
Many
educational institutions have multipurpose areas used for several activities,
such as for dining and for assembly, where the furniture used must be flexible
enough to meet the different demands or be easily moved and stored. Systems
furniture is becoming increasingly popular.
Cutbacks
in educational budgets have meant that the many schools have very limited
resources to pay for trips, even if they are directly curriculum related. This
may mean a search for alternative sources of funding, such as a direct approach
to parents or using of school funds. In further and higher education, trips are
usually funded by the students themselves, although some educational travel
grants may be available. When the trip is part of a course, there may be
limited departmental funding and travel grants are offered by the Research
Councils, although competition for additional funding is great.
There
are around 29,500 training providers in the UK employing about 500,000
individuals, with total sales of approximately £21.9bn in 1993. It is
estimated that around 480,400 people passed through government-sponsored
training programmes in the year to February 1994, with a further 250,000
attending colleges for vocational training programmes and as many as five
million other individuals and employees receiving training across a wide range
of subjects and levels by various methods.
The
educational sector is a major customer of financial services, both in terms of
the educational institutions and the students, or their parents. The financial
services which may be demanded by educational institutions include leasing
facilities, insurance, account and loan facilities. Financial services are also
be required by individual students and their parents, such as saving facilities
and financial help with school fees and insurance services,
Educational
spending by the Department for Education in 1994/1995 is expected to total
£10.49bn, 6.8% more than 1993/1994 when spending totalled £9.82bn.
The Government has restated its priority to boost the number of
grant-maintained schools and has announced substantial rises in both recurrent
and capital spending for these schools.
Government policy that the education sector must increasingly look to the
commercial world for additional funding is likely to continue, necessitating an
alteration in outlook to one of selling skills and facilities and becoming
economically competitive and commercially aware. Although this means that some
sectors of the educational supply industry will need to cut costs in the
increasingly competitive environment, it is expected that the changes will also
open up markets for innovative suppliers.
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