THE Church of England stands to save £1.5 million, and possibly millions of pounds more, after the Government this week went back on its refusal to pay for graduates in training for ministry after September.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HECFE) and the Ministry Division of the Archbishops’ Council said yesterday that they had found a potential solution that would delay the cuts by a year and could reshape many training courses.
The proposals would mean that clergy in training would work for a foundation degree, or an employer-co-funded Bachelor degree, both of which receive HECFE funding.
The Church of England spent £16.5 million a year on training clergy, mostly raised from parishes, the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Jones, who chairs the Ministry Division, said in a statement. Training would have to become increasingly practical, “but we remain committed to offering academically stimulating courses for all ordinands.”
He warned that not accepting these changes could mean that the Church would have to find an additional £1.5 million, at a time when parishes were already under pressure to meet the cost of training more ministers.
The funding crisis emerged at the end of last year (News, 21 December 2007), when the Government asked HECFE to redistribute £100 million for first degrees from September this year, leaving those with higher or equivalent degrees to find their own funds to continue their studies. Some subjects, such as Islam, were exempt because they were regarded as strategic.
The Revd Dr Martin Seeley, Principal of Westcott House Theological College, Cambridge, who was involved in the latest discussions with HEFCE, said on Wednesday that the talks had shown that there was more money in the system than expected. The year’s delay had given the Church time to work out the details of the proposed changes.
“A number of training programmes which are currently labelled BA could turn into a foundation degree that could then lead to a BA,” he said. That would not be a significant change for the Cambridge Theological Federation, which already incorporates many of the elements of the foundation degree. If the foundation degree counted as a first degree, then those who wanted a BA could have co-funding, half coming from the HECFE, and half from the Church as the “employer”.
“This is a huge opportunity to bring a bit more clarity and order into the relationship [of ministerial training] with higher-education institutions that is incredibly murky.” |
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