Funded by the Nuffield Foundation
There are around 1.7 million young people aged 16–18 in further education and training in England.1 We use the term 16–18 education to refer to post-16 study undertaken by young people at further education providers, including school sixth forms, sixth-form colleges and further education colleges. This includes students taking A levels, technical qualifications and, in some cases, lower-level courses such as GCSE resits. Together, there are just over 2,800 further education providers with around 2,400 school sixth forms (including academies) and around 400 further education and sixth-form colleges.
Funding arrangements differ across these provider types. School sixth forms are funded through the 16–19 funding system, though schools with sixth form provision also receive funding for younger pupils through the school funding system. Further education and sixth-form colleges receive funding specifically for post-16 education, including both 16–18 provision and adult skills funding. For colleges, public funding for 16–18 education represents a major component of overall resources, accounting for nearly 60% of the total income of further education colleges in England (Moura and Tahir, 2024). In our analysis, we focus on allocations made through the 16–19 funding system, which finances education for 16- to 18-year-olds (and a small number of 19-year-olds), and use these allocations to calculate funding per student.
Figure 1 illustrates funding per student aged 16–18 in school sixth forms, further education colleges and sixth-form colleges across academic years starting from 2013–14 (the earliest year available in the data). The figures are based on annual funding allocations published by the Department for Education, which set out the total public funding allocated to each provider for the education of 16- to 19-year-olds. These allocations are determined centrally using a national funding formula, with key factors including lagged student numbers, the types of programmes studied, area cost uplifts and measures of disadvantage.
We focus on funding allocated per student aged 16–18 rather than the actual expenditures. Actual spending can differ depending on how schools and colleges distribute their budgets across different stages of education and other activities.
Funding per student aged 16–18 has consistently been higher in further education colleges than in school sixth forms and sixth-form colleges. This is because further education college students are more likely to pursue technical qualifications and often come from more disadvantaged backgrounds, both of which attract higher funding levels. In the 2025–26 academic year, funding per student in further education colleges is approximately £8,000, compared with £6,400 in school sixth forms and £6,000 in sixth-form colleges. Between 2013–14 and 2019–20, real-terms funding cuts affected school sixth forms and sixth-form colleges similarly, with a decrease in the range 16–18%. Further education colleges experienced smaller cuts of 8% over the same period. This difference is partly due to the higher prevalence of vocational qualifications in further education colleges, which have benefited from targeted funding initiatives such as the Capacity and Delivery Fund (CDF). Another factor is the decline in part-time study at further education colleges: the share of part-time students aged 16–18 dropped from 17% in 2013 to just 10% by the end of the decade. This shift has contributed to an increase in funding per student.
Since 2019, additional funding has been allocated to further education. However, rising student numbers and inflation have limited the extent to which this has translated into increases in funding per student. Growth in student numbers has been particularly pronounced in further education colleges in recent years. Between 2023–24 and 2025–26, student numbers in further education colleges rose by around 7% per year, compared with average annual increases of around 1% in school sixth forms and 2% in sixth-form colleges. This growth has been driven in large part by a sharp rise in enrolments on level 2 courses (GCSEs or equivalent). The number of 16- to 17-year-olds studying at this level increased by around 50,000 (34%) between 2022 and 2024.2 This increase likely reflects a combination of factors, including lower GCSE attainment following the pandemic, underlying demographic changes and a shift towards vocational study at level 2. As a result, increases in total funding have been spread across a larger student population, dampening growth in funding per student.
For the current academic year (2025–26), real-terms funding per student is about 7% higher in sixth-form colleges and about 11% higher in school sixth forms and further education colleges than in 2019–20. Looking further back, this means that funding for students in school sixth forms is 9% lower, and in sixth-form colleges 11% lower, than in 2013–14. A larger real-terms increase in funding this year means that further education college spending per student is 1% higher than in 2013–14.
To examine trends in spending over a longer period, we draw on different data sources that allow funding allocations to be tracked back further in time but uses slightly different definitions. In this dataset, spending for further education colleges and sixth-form colleges is combined, and we refer to these institutions together as 16–18 colleges. In addition, spending is recorded by financial year rather than academic year.
Figure 2 provides a picture of how per-student spending in school sixth forms and colleges has changed over a longer period, starting from 1989–90 for colleges and from 2002–03 for school sixth forms, with projections for 2026–27.
Since the start of public spending cuts in the 2010–11 financial year, spending per student has declined across colleges and school sixth forms. Between 2010–11 and 2019–20, college spending per student dropped by 14%, while school sixth forms saw a much sharper decline of 28%. For colleges, this reduction brought per-student spending back to roughly the same level as in 2004–05. School sixth-form funding had reached its lowest level in the data series to date, which extends back to 2002.
Overall, spending per student in 16–18 education across all institutions has increased by 9% in real terms between 2019–20 and 2025–26. Yet even with additional funding, levels remain significantly below those of 2010–11. In 2025–26, funding for colleges, encompassing both further education and sixth-form colleges, is around 8% lower per student than it was in 2010–11, while spending in school sixth forms is 20% below 2010–11 levels. Thus, the increased funding from this government and the previous government only partially offsets the cuts of the decade from 2010–11.
The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper set out further detail on future funding levels. It confirmed a real-terms increase of around £450 million in the 16–19 budget between 2025–26 and 2026–27, funded from within the Spending Review settlement. As shown in Figure 4.2, this would lead to a 2.5% real-terms increase in spending per student aged 16–19 over this period. This would return funding per student in colleges to around its 2012–13 level and funding in school sixth forms to levels last seen in the mid 2010s. However, even after these increases, college funding per student would remain around 6% below its 2010–11 level, while school sixth-form funding would remain around 18% lower. Overall, recent funding increases reverse some, but not all, of the real-terms decline experienced during the 2010s, and comes at a time of growing demand for 16–18 education.
The White Paper also indicated a desire to at least hold spending per student constant in real terms. With the size of the 16–18 population currently increasing, this would require further real-terms increases in total funding beyond those already announced. The number of 16- to 18-year-olds in England has been rising since 2017 and is expected to continue increasing in the coming years. Between 2018 and 2025, the size of this age group grew by around 300,000, or 16%. Population projections suggest a further increase of around 70,000 (3%) by 2028, when the number of 16- to 18-year-olds is expected to peak. Based on these population projections, maintaining spending per student at its 2026–27 level in real terms would require total funding to increase by a further £150 million (in today’s prices) by 2028–29.
