BUFDG began life as a much smaller group of Finance Directors who held an annual conference and met occasionally throughout the year to discuss university money matters. Life was somewhat different back then - first with a University Grants Committee (UGC) and then a University Funding Council (UFC) which covered the whole of Britain, and provided the majority of the funding to the sector.
Since then there have been many changes. In 1992, the Further and Higher Education Act created one unified higher education sector, by abolishing the division between universities and polytechnics. Four funding bodies were set up - for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and since 1 April 1993, these bodies have funded all higher education institutions in the UK.
As a result, Directors of Finance in former polytechnics joined BUFDG and much was learned from each other through regional meetings and the annual conference. It was perhaps at this point that Directors recognised that there was value in working more cooperatively as a group, to practice what they preach and to minimise the efforts of dealing with funding councils and other agencies. After all, why do something a hundred times, when it can be done once?
Over the years there have been many examples of this cooperation, including the Statement of Recommended Practice, accounting for further and higher education and agreements with the Inland Revenue on direct tax.
In 2005, BUFDG invited all Colleges of Higher Education to join the membership and almost all of the colleges now also benefit from the information and activities of the group. Our name might only mention universities, but we are very mindful of all our members’ position in the higher education market.
And that’s another change - in 2004, the Higher Education Act paved the way for a market in higher education. With a maximum tuition fee of £3,000 being charged by the majority of institutions for the majority of undergraduate programmes, the sector doesn’t show many traditional signs of a market, but the new era from September 2006 has brought some changes.
With demands from government to work more closely with industry and commerce, and with sources of funding in higher education now more diverse than ever, there has never been more need for Directors of Finance to be able to talk about finance, business and management issues. BUFDG provides the ideal forum for them to do so, through our discussion board, meetings, training events, conferences and this website.
Here is the BUFDG Constitution, which was most recently amended in April 2007.
If you have any queries, please contact the Executive Officer, Karel Thomas.