Red-tape reduction

Dame Patricia Hodgson, the university red-tape watchdog, today announced the "first fruits" of her campaign to cut unnecessary regulation.

She said that, following discussions with her Higher Education Regulation Review Group, the Higher Education Funding Council for England had agreed changes to its approach to funding, monitoring and data collection. Hefce said it would run no more than six funding initiatives at any one time to prevent universities having to spend too much time and effort bidding for money from too many "jam jars".