The government¡¯s ¡°very radical¡± policy to slash direct public funding for teaching in English higher education is seen by the rest of the world as ¡°completely bonkers¡±, according to the head of England¡¯s funding council.

Sir Alan Langlands, the outgoing chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, made the comments at Hefce¡¯s annual conference, held in London on 18 April, directly after a speech by David Willetts, the universities and science minister.

Sir Alan said that the policy changes - under which direct public funding for teaching is being replaced by higher tuition fees - would deliver a ?3.4 billion, 64 per cent cut in Hefce teaching grant between 2011 and 2015.

¡°You shouldn¡¯t underestimate just how radical this is. You go to any other part of the world, they think we¡¯re completely bonkers,¡± he told the conference.

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Sir Alan, who will become vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds on 1 October, also issued a warning over the rising projected cost of the new student loans system, which is subsidised by the taxpayer.

¡°If perhaps the Treasury and BIS [the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] have got their sums wrong on some of this - or some of their underlying assumptions wrong - if that set of issues comes alongside continued difficulties¡­on student recruitment¡­that is when the trouble starts,¡± Sir Alan said. ¡°This is the area we have to be watching very closely.¡±

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Meanwhile, it is expected that private providers will be among those to benefit from government plans to reallocate student numbers away from English universities with unfilled places - proposals that emerged at the Hefce conference.

Mr Willetts said in his speech that from 2014-15, the year when private providers are brought under student number controls, ¡°flexibility¡± in the allocation of places would be extended beyond allowing unlimited recruitment of students with top A-level grades. The threshold for this unlimited recruitment will remain at ABB in 2014-15.

The minister added of his newer scheme: ¡°Where student demand is low and institutions significantly under-recruit, then unfilled places will be moved to those with stronger recruitment patterns.¡±

Mr Willetts also said that he wanted the ¡°further liberalisation¡± of number controls ¡°to benefit the full range of students and institutions¡±.

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William Hunt, co-founder and deputy chairman of GSM London, formerly the Greenwich School of Management, said: ¡°If there are places that are not filled, those numbers would normally go to waste. This would be one way of supporting the alternative provider sector without a terrible loss to the publicly funded sector.¡±

Mr Willetts also said that he plans to write with the Department for Education to ¡°pupils from poorer backgrounds who have done well at their GCSEs¡± via their headteachers to encourage them to think about applying to university.

But with Michael Gove, the education secretary, a keen backer of the Russell Group, Mr Willetts sought to head off any notion that the letter might solely advocate that the pupils apply to the most selective universities.

john.morgan@tsleducation.com