Early Years Masters Funding 2024-25
Summary
- I am writing to announce funding for Early Years Masters in Academic Year (AY) 2024-25.
Purpose of funding
- The Early Years Masters is designed to provide valuable learning for the early years sector, particularly in view of early years and childcare expansion, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The Scottish Government has committed to fund 93 students per year for Early Years Masters through the University of Aberdeen and University of Strathclyde.
- This is the second year of funding and, while initially planned for 3 years, any funding beyond AY 2024-25 is not guaranteed. Universities should, therefore, factor this into their recruitment plans, including transparency with students about future funding arrangements.
Funding for AY 2024-25
- Enrolment rates have been calculated across a 3-year period and, again, for AY 2024-25 take annual fluctuations into account.
- Funding comprises i) teaching grant costs and ii) additional funding to cover additional running costs which will take University of Aberdeen and University of Strathclyde to the amount of funding that they previously received direct from the Scottish Government.
- A total of £200,000 will be allocated in AY 2024-25 only. The table below sets out the funding for each university (for both teaching grant costs and additional running costs). This is based on the estimated number of places (FTE) for AY 2024-25 as agreed with the universities.
| Institution | AY 2024-25 |
|---|---|
| University of Aberdeen – Teaching Funding | £10,323 |
| University of Aberdeen – Additional | £82,778 |
| University of Strathclyde – Teaching Funding | £13,679 |
| University of Strathclyde – Additional | £93,220 |
| TOTAL | £200,000 |
Conditions of grant
- This funding must only be used for the purpose(s) for which it is being allocated, as outlined above. Conditions of funding, as noted in Annex C of the University Main Grant Letter, apply.
Payment of funds
- Payments will be made in monthly instalments, in line with the payment profile set out in Annex D of SFC’s Final Funding Announcement for AY 2024-25 with the instalments from August 2024 to January 2025 paid in February 2025.
- Payment of additional funding will depend on the condition that it is used for the development and delivery of Early Years Masters provision.
Future years funding and monitoring
- The University of Aberdeen and University of Strathclyde are to provide the Scottish Government with a high-level annual report, including enrolment and completion data, by Friday 12 September 2025. Reports should be submitted to Scott Sutherland, ELC Workforce-Professional Learning Team, email: sutherland@gov.scot.
- SFC will treat and monitor this (through Early Statistics returns) as a controlled subject. As with other controlled subjects, we will apply a tolerance threshold of 3% for
under-recruitment and 10% for over-recruitment. SFC will consider recovery of funding for both under and over-recruitment at the end of the period of funding, based on the number of students eligible for funding on the course compared to the number of funded places allocated across that period of funding. Therefore, universities can continue to make up any reduced intake, in recognition of annual fluctuations, and will be given the opportunity to present any mitigating circumstances. - Funding beyond AY 2024-25 is not guaranteed. However, the universities should continue to work with the Scottish Government to agree further evaluation measures to inform a business case to continue funding for AY 2025-26 (as funding was initially planned over a 3-year period). This includes how the programmes are supporting and enhancing quality in the childcare sector. The scope of this evaluation is to be agreed between the relevant universities and the Scottish Government with a view to also sharing learning undertaken as widely as possible across the sector.
Acceptance of grant
- We cannot process any payments until you have accepted this offer of grant in writing. Please email your acceptance to Suranjith Fernando, Budgeting and Reporting Officer, email: grantacceptance@sfc.ac.uk by Tuesday 11 February 2025.
Further information
- If you have any queries or require any further information, please contact Duncan Condie, Senior Funding Policy Officer, email: dcondie@sfc.ac.uk.
Richard Maconachie FCCA
Director of Finance
SFC Strategic Plan 2022-27
Building a connected, agile, sustainable tertiary education and research system for Scotland.