Value for Money Strategy

Achieving Value for Money (VfM) means ensuring that the University’s finite resources are best used to support its core mission of teaching and research. By doing so the University delivers Value for Money for its students, funders, and the taxpayer.

Delivering and monitoring Value for Money is complicated by Oxford’s devolved structure where many decisions about spend are taken at a local, departmental level, and are driven by local factors. Nevertheless, the University can take institutionally-led measures to improve the capability of departments to achieve Value for Money and put in place procedures to ensure Value for Money in relation to central spending.

There are a several recent developments that have changed the environment within which spending decisions are taken at Oxford:

1. The overall economic and financial landscape for UK higher education institutions, such as the impact of inflation and frozen Home tuition fees, on the resources available to the University.
2. The introduction of the University’s Finance White Paper reforms for 2023/24, which both places accountability with Divisions to deliver a balanced budget across their departments, whilst also providing incentives through the retention of surpluses into cash-backed reserves.
3. The increased transparency around the sources of funding for key activities and the degree to which additional funding is available to support further activity.

The University is a charitable body set up for the public good for the purpose of supporting the advancement of learning by teaching and research and its dissemination by every means. To support this core objective, the University recognises the need to ensure the most effective use of its resources. It places responsibility for monitoring and delivering this with its governance (as set out below). In addition, Oxford notes the Office for Students Value for Money Strategy  which focuses on ensuring value for money for both students and the taxpayer.

The University recognises that Value for Money is about finding the right balance between the following three principles in a way that best furthers its academic mission: 
•    Economy – reducing the cost of resources used for an activity, with a regard for maintaining quality
•    Efficiency – delivering the same level of service for less cost, time or effort, with a regard for maintaining quality
•    Effectiveness – successfully achieving the intended outcomes from an activity

With that in mind, the University defines Value for Money as:
Ensuring that through informed and data-led academic-decision making, Oxford delivers its core mission of teaching and research, and supporting operations, as economically, efficiently and effectively as possible.

The University Council places responsibility for delivering and monitoring Value for Money with a number of its committees:

• The Education Committee is responsible for ensuring students receive value for money when receiving an Oxford education.
• The Planning and Resource Allocation Committee (PRAC) is responsible for ensuring that the operations of the University are delivered in the most efficient and effective way so that the maximum level of resources can be allocated furthering its academic mission.
• The Audit and Scrutiny Committee is responsible for providing independent assurance to the Council on the adequacy and effectiveness of the University's Value for Money strategy and processes. The committee will receive an annual report from Education Committee and PRAC in order to assist with this responsibility.

In assessing its value for money, the University will ensure that it:
i.    Considers the areas outlined by the Office for Students to constitute key value for money metrics, in respect of student experience and outcomes.
ii.   Recognises the metrics that best demonstrates operational value for money performance.
iii.  Keeps these areas (i. and ii. above) under active consideration to promote a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.
iv.  Undertakes initiatives in areas identified as requiring attention to improve value for money with clear targets.
v.   Sets out clear responsibility for driving and achieving value for money in particular areas.
vi.  Provides assurance to Council, its students and external stakeholders on student and operational value for money.
vii. Where possible, benchmarks itself against other institutions in the sector.

Data-led approach

The University will use a data-led approach both to monitor its overall progress in achieving Value for Money, and also in determining where initiatives and local action should focus to improve its performance.  

It will be the responsibility of Education Committee and PRAC to identify and monitor a selection of high-level institutional metrics that provide an overall view of trends in Value for Money delivery across the University. Trends in these metrics will, over time, help to identify areas within student Value for Money and operational Value for Money that Education Committee and PRAC may wish to commission work to improve performance. The metrics will be used to better understand the impact of policies, initiatives, and individual actions.

Separately, individual initiatives and workstreams identified as progressing the University’s Value for Money agenda will also be asked to identify and report on metrics relating to their specific programme to ensure Value for Money objectives are embedded in these initiatives, and are measurable both in terms of the scale of improvement that can be achieved and the timescale for implementation.

The Data Strategy Implementation Programme, an initiative included in the Digital Transformation Programme, will over time help Education Committee and PRAC have the data and analytical capacity they require to monitor the necessary data.

As the University’s data maturity increases, it is expected that further metrics will be agreed and tracked regularly at appropriate committees to inform prioritisation of future work.

The Education Committee will agree and keep under review metrics relating to the student lifecycle and experience that allow it to track the University’s performance in achieving Value for Money for its students. The Education Committee will use these metrics to identify areas where student value for money performance could be improved, and as appropriate, commission work, set targets for improvements and agree measures to achieve these. 

The Office for Students identifies the following areas that relate to the delivery of value for money for students: Teaching Excellence Framework, Access and Participation Plans, Consumer Protection, Transferring Courses, Employment Outcomes. The University will maintain policies to enable it to meet its requirements to the Office for Students and deliver the best experience and outcomes for its students.

The Education Committee will report jointly with PRAC to the Audit and Scrutiny Committee, particularly on any existing initiatives and workstreams that will impact on the University’s ability to deliver value for money for students.

Teaching Excellence Framework
Oxford aspires to be a centre of teaching excellence of the highest standard and provides value for money to its students through its small-group tutorial teaching model and other well-established inclusive teaching practises. The University fully engages with Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) assessments as prescribed by the Office for Students and make all relevant submissions to demonstrate that it is meeting the highest possible teaching standard. 

Education Committee will reflect on the results of each TEF assessments and other related data, and agree changes as necessary to University regulations and teaching practises to improve the value for money of its students. Education Committee may set targets above and beyond those prescribed as part of the TEF order to drive and track improvements in Oxford’s teaching.

The University of Oxford was awarded a Gold award under the Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017 and 2023; the University aspires to maintain this rating in future assessments in recognition of its teaching excellence.

Access and Participation Plan
As an institution charging fees for Home Undergraduates at the level of the government cap the University will submit Access and Participation Plans (APP) to the Office for Students for approval. The plans will set out the University’s commitment to utilise its resources to support students from underprivileged and target backgrounds, and include details of: current access targets, other access, success and progression measures, and financial and other on-course support available to students.

Education Committee will be responsible for drawing up APPs for submission to the Office for Students.

Consumer Protection
The University recognises its obligations under consumer protection law to give students clear, accurate and timely information about their course. Oxford will fully comply with guidance published by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for higher education providers in order to ensure it provides value for money to its students.

In line with the CMA guidance, he University ensures compliance at three stages of the application/enrolment process:

1. At the Application/Enquiry stage, the University provides comprehensive, clear information to enable applicants to make an informed decision.
2. At the Offer stage, the relevant contractual information is provided as part of the offer (so before a prospective student agrees to accept the offer of a place).
3. At the enrolment stage, the University ensures that all information provided is consistent with that provided to applicants.
   In addition to the above, the Education Committee will maintain complaints and appeals policies and procedures and will provide students with clear information about these.

Transferring between courses
The University supports the rights of its students to transfer between courses. The Education Committee has agreed a policy governing the arrangements for student transfers and will maintain and update this policy as appropriate. 

Employment Outcomes
Oxford aspires to offer an excellent academic experience for all our students, and ensure that graduates are equipped to excel in whatever they choose to do. In this way, Oxford graduates should have the skills and knowledge to succeed in future study or employment. The University delivers this by:

• providing world-class teaching and a learning environment in which students can thrive,
• ensuring assessments and qualifications are rigorous and of the highest quality including, where relevant, professional and regulatory body accreditation.
• developing employability skills through course curricula, tutorial teaching and extra-curricular opportunities such as internships and placements.

The Education Committee will oversee delivery of employability and work readiness skills, together with internship and other placement activities, as supported by the Careers Service. The committee will receive and consider data at least annually on employment outcomes in order to assure University performance, including against sector benchmarks, and inform further work, as appropriate.

The more economical, effective and efficient the University’s administration, processes and systems are, the more resource can be allocated to support direct academic activity in teaching students and undertaking world-leading research. The University will therefore plan and deliver workstreams aimed at improving and maintaining the effectiveness of its operations.

PRAC will agree, and keep under review, high-level institutional metrics that can be used to suggest whether value for money is being achieved across the University and so the impact of policies, initiatives, and individual actions can be better understood. These metrics may include high-level trends in some or all of the following:
•    Spend on central professional services over time 
•    Spend on divisional professional services over time
•    Per-capita metrics relating to certain services and provision
•    Non-pay expenditure and procurement
•    Estates and space related costs
•    Digital and IT-infrastructure related costs
•    TRAC and teaching and research related costs

PRAC will report annually on these metrics to Council and, where appropriate, set targets and commission work to improve the efficiency of the University’s operations, as well as providing relevant data to divisions and departments who directly manage the delivery of the University’s teaching and research activities. 

Value for Money initiatives and workstreams

PRAC will commission projects and workstreams aimed at improving the operation of institution’s processes and systems. PRAC may refer initiatives to other committees of Council or its subcommittees as appropriate. The appropriate governance and oversight of these workstreams will be agreed at the outset; this will normally include the appointment of a Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) to lead the work, and a committee charged with monitoring progress.

When leading workstreams, SROs will be required to ensure that due consideration is given to how value for money can be maintained and improved as part of the work, and report to PRAC on how this can be achieved and measured.

Once workstreams are completed, PRAC will agree metrics and reporting to track the benefits against the expected outcomes and targets for an appropriate period of time. These will be reported in the annual Value for Money Report. PRAC may delegate the detailed monitoring and reporting to other committees or its subcommittees as appropriate. 

TRAC

The University will undertake an annual exercise in line with methodology set out by the Office for Students for the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC). The results of the TRAC exercise will be considered by PRAC and used to monitor movements and changes between submissions as part of a wider pool of metrics to inform on University’s activity and value for money. The University will use TRAC data to assess its performance against the rest of the sector and other close competitor institutions as appropriate. PRAC may set targets and instigate workstreams in order to improve the University’s value for money as a result of TRAC data as necessary.

Improving data use and capabilities

The use of metrics, benchmarks, and appropriate data is crucial in assessing value for money and tracking the impact of work undertaken to improve the effectiveness and efficiencies of University operations. PRAC will continue to keep under review its use of data and its capability to assess its operational value for money.

Education Committee and PRAC will receive annual reports on value for money affecting their areas of responsibility under this strategy. The 2 reports will be combined and submitted to the Audit and Scrutiny Committee and Council in order to provide assurance that the University is achieving value for money.

The University recognises the importance of effectively communicating with its internal and external stakeholders on Value for Money, both as a means of celebrating successes and scrutinising its performance in a transparent way.

The University will develop a communications strategy for Value for Money, which will be agreed by Education Committee and PRAC. The strategy will include publishing information and metrics related to student and operational Value for Money on the University website, and providing information that would be of specific interest to particular stakeholder groups, such as students. The University will seek to keep stakeholders informed of workstreams to improve Value for Money and SROs will be asked to agree appropriate communication plans for such initiatives.