Education Reform Act 1988

132 Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council

(1) There shall be established a body corporate to be known as the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council.

(2) The Council shall consist of fifteen members appointed by the Secretary of State, of whom one shall be so appointed as chairman.

(3) Not less than six and not more than nine of the members shall be persons appearing to the Secretary of State—

(a) to have experience of, and to have shown capacity in, the provision of higher education; and

(b) to be currently engaged in the provision of higher education;

and in appointing the remaining members the Secretary of State shall have regard to the desirability of including persons who appear to him to have experience of, and to have shown capacity in, industrial, commercial or financial matters or the practice of any profession.

(4) The Council shall be responsible, subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, for administering funds made available to the Council by the Secretary of State for the purposes of—

(a) providing financial support for activities eligible for funding under this section; and

(b) making payments in accordance with section 133 of this Act.

(5) The activities eligible for funding under this section are—

(a) the provision of education and the undertaking of research by institutions within the PCFC funding sector;

(b) the provision of any facilities and the carrying on of any other activities by such institutions which the governing bodies of those institutions consider it necessary or expedient to provide or carry on for the purpose of or in connection with education and research; and

(c) the provision by institutions maintained or assisted by local education authorities, other than universities, of prescribed courses of higher education.

(6) The following are to be treated for the purposes of this Act as institutions within the PCFC funding sector—

(a) any institution conducted by a higher education corporation; and

(b) any institution designated under section 129 of this Act as an institution eligible to receive support from funds administered by the Council.

(7) The Council shall have power—

(a) to make grants to the governing body of any institution within the PCFC funding sector in respect of expenditure incurred or to be incurred by them for the purposes of any activities eligible for funding under this section by virtue of subsection (5)(a) or (b) above; and

(b) to make grants to any local education authority or other persons in respect of expenditure incurred or to be incurred by them for the purposes of the provision as mentioned in subsection (5)(c) above of prescribed courses of higher education;

subject in each case to such terms and conditions as the Council think fit.

(8) In exercising their functions in relation to the provision of financial support for activities eligible for funding under this section the Council shall have regard to the desirability of not discouraging any institution within the PCFC funding sector in respect of which grants are made under subsection (7) above from maintaining or developing its funding from other sources.

(9) In exercising their functions in relation to the provision of financial support for activities eligible for funding under this section the Council shall have regard (so far as they think it appropriate to do so in the light of any other relevant considerations) to the desirability of maintaining what appears to them to be for the time being an appropriate balance in their support of such activities as between institutions concerned in those activities which are of a denominational character and other institutions so concerned.

(10) The Council shall also have power—

(a) to keep under review activities eligible for funding under this section;

(b) to provide the Secretary of State, in such manner as he may from time to time determine, with such information and advice relating to activities eligible for funding under this section as they think fit; and

(c) to undertake such other activities as the Council consider it necessary or expedient to undertake for the purposes of or in connection with the exercise of any of their functions under the preceding provisions of this section.

(11) Each of the following, that is to say—

(a) a local education authority;

(b) the governing body of any institution within the PCFC funding sector; and

(c) the governing body of any institution at which prescribed courses of higher education are currently or have at any time been provided;

shall give the Council such information as the Council may require for the purposes of the exercise of any of their functions under this section.

(12) For the purposes of subsection (9) above an institution is an institution of a denominational character if it appears to the Council that either—

(a) a majority of the members of the governing body of the institution are persons appointed to represent the interests of a particular religious denomination; or

(b) all or most of the property held for the purposes of the institution is held upon trusts which provide that, in the event of the discontinuance of the institution, the property concerned shall be held for, or sold and the proceeds of sale applied for, the benefit of a particular religious denomination.