About HEFCE

HEFCE distributes public money for higher education to universities and colleges in England, and ensures that this money is used to deliver the greatest benefit to students and the wider public.

Our core values are openness, impartiality, fairness and objectivity. And in everything we do, we strive to safeguard the collective interests of students.

This includes monitoring that universities and colleges are financially healthy, that their courses are good quality, and that everyone with the potential to enter higher education has a fair chance to do so.

We do not provide grants or loans to individual students, but a list of organisations that provide individual student support is available.

More details of our roles and responsibilities are below. Note that key aspects of these are under review as part of the Government’s reform of higher education funding.