JOHN Andrews, chief executive of the Welsh Further and Higher Education Funding Councils, welcomed the endorsement of two sectoral funding councils sharing a chief executive and staff and Dearing's recommendation to extend the model to Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Keith Robbins, senior vice chancellor of the University of Wales, said the conclusions held little surprise and that there was no reason why the funding structure should not work equally well in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
He said the key question on collaborative work was how it would be funded.