Further education

This event examined the potential role that adult education can play in providing a genuine second chance, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds or who leave school with few formal qualifications. IFS researchers set out the planned reforms in the context of recent changes to learner numbers and funding, as well as the likely impact of planned reforms given the details and evidence base.

In the last decade, there have been significant cuts to spending on adult education and large falls in the numbers of adult learners, particularly amongst those taking low-level qualifications.

This report looks at annual education spending in the UK.

In this note, we analyse how participation in and spending on 16–18 education have evolved over recent years.

In this briefing note, we assess the key policy announcements made in the DfE’s recent ‘Skills for Jobs’ White Paper around the funding of post-18 education.

In our annual series of reports on education spending, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, we bring together data on education spending per student across the life cycle and provide analysis about the major issues facing different sectors.

What are the main parties’ spending proposals for young people in further education and sixth forms, and for adult education? To what extent will they reverse the cuts we’ve seen to date?

Education spending is the second-largest element of public service spending in the UK behind health, representing about £91 billion in 2018–19 in today’s prices or about 4.2% of national income.

Almost all the candidates in the Conservative leadership election have promised higher levels of spending on education. With a Spending Review of some form due this year, we analyse the cost of potential commitments on schools and education spending.