FEES POLICY 2024/2025
Below we have set out Lancaster & Morecambe College's fee policy for 2024/25.
Some groups of learners at College receive free tuition and are not required to pay fees, these groups include:
- 16-18 learners
- Some 16-18 apprentices
- 19-24 learners with an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP)
- 19+ learners studying at Level 3 under the National Skills Offer
- Unemployed learners seeking employment in receipt of certain eligible benefits
- Learners that meet eligibility rules studying on a Level 2 or Level 3 course with entitlement
The above learners do not pay fees and the College receives the fully-funded course rate from the Education & Skills Funding Agency (EFSA). For other groups of learners, listed below, the College is expected to charge a fee.
CURRENT FEE LEVELS 2024/25
Full Time Adult Courses
It is proposed to maintain the time fee at £250 to ensure or provision is affordable and to maintain and encourage more enrolments in order to fully utilise the adult allocation. At this level our adult full-time fees are competitive compared to other local providers
Part Time Adult Courses
Part-time adult courses will generally be made up of different cohorts of adults; some will qualify for full funding, some may be loan funded and some may be co-funded.
For those learners required to pay a fee it is proposed to increase the standard part-time fee by 6.5% to £1.92 p/h to cover increased costs arising from staff and non-pay cost increases. This would represent 32% of the new adult funding base rate of £6 p/h which is less than the 50%
co-funded rate the college is expected to charge.
The College does offer a number of ‘premium’ courses that are in high demand and often over subscribed. In addition, some provision, e.g. Welding, incurs significant materials costs. For these courses the College may charge a higher fee to more closely reflect market rates and
the cost of delivery. In such cases the fee charged will not exceed the 50% co-funded rate.
College Discretionary Remission
It is proposed that this fee remains at £25. This fee only applies to a small cohort of learners
Apprenticeships
A compulsory fee is payable by employers for certain categories of Apprenticeship provision. Other categories, such as apprentices employed by SME’s are exempt from fees.
Where the fee is applicable it has been set by the DFE as 5% of the cost of training negotiated with the employer. This value must not exceed the top of the funding band for the relevant framework / standard.
The College will continue to negotiate fees on an individual basis with employers.
Level 3 Learners Aged 19+
These learners are not eligible for ESFA funding but can apply for a student loan through the Student Loans Company.
Such learners could be studying Full or Part Time College-based courses or work placed NVQs.
The College will normally charge a fee equivalent to the national funding rates applicable to the programme the learner is studying. This rate will be derived from the government ‘Find a Learning Aim’ database. This fee is occasionally capped at £5,000 to maintain a differential with HE fees.
Higher Education - Full Cost Learners
HE fees are set two years in advance. The fee set for 2024/25 is £5,500.
It is proposed to increase the HE fee to £5,850 for new HE learners enrolling in 2022/26. This increase equates to 6.4% which reflects staffing and non-pay cost increases incurred by the College. This will enable the College to make an adequate contribution whilst maintaining a significant differential to the £9,250 charged by Universities. This fee will remain competitive relative to other local Colleges.
14-16 Fees
The College has experienced significant growth in its 14-16 provision and as such, fees for the provision will be formally set within this fees policy (previously agreed by local negotiation).
Fees charged for 14-16 provision in 2024/25 will be:
- Group rate - £100 p/h up to a maximum group size of 10 with the school to provide support as required.
- Individual rate for full time placement (3 days per week) - £6,500
- Individual rate for part time infill into an existing class - £30 p/h
- In class support - £20 p/h and £30 p/h for one to one support
Due to the complexity of adult funding, it is very difficult to compare fees between providers on a like for like basis. However, from a review of college websites and published information, we consider our fees to be competitive compared to other local providers.
The above fees are designed to maintain and encourage more adult enrolments, to maximise co-funding and utilise the Adult Education Budget whilst ensuring our provision is affordable for our community.
