The Government has called on the Higher Education Funding Council for England to encourage more bottom-up innovative approaches to finding solutions to vulnerable strategic subjects. In a letter to Hefce, Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, welcomes the council's efforts but asks it to do more to encourage early conversations between institutions with at-risk subjects. She said this could enable transfer of provision in a way that minimises "any disruption for students and preferably improves their overall learning experience by giving them better access to high-quality scholarship".