About the event
The first meeting of the reconvened London Weighting Task Group following January’s letter from the Secretary of State requesting OfS consultation to look at this again, and notification from OfS of consultation on teaching funding. Since 2002 London Higher has been the only sector body to develop and argue the case for London Weighting in recurrent grant funding – worth around £68 million for teaching in 2018-19.
This task group includes representatives drawn from senior colleagues across our diverse membership, and the meeting is strictly by invitation only.
At this meeting the group discussed the upcoming Office for Students (OfS) consultation for funding and the broader arguments for the London Weighting. The Group noted the arguments for maintaining the London Weighting, most notably property costs and staff costs and the importance of the London Weighting in maintaining a ‘level playing field’. The Group also agreed how important it will be to highlight the student experience in any future arguments, noting that students in London face additional challenges compared to others (i.e. commuter students) and widening participation is stronger in London than elsewhere in the UK. The Group plan to reconvene to discuss next steps include the possibility of engage external consultancies for independent analysis of the London Weighting.