Transcript Slide 1
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Title: Higher Education in Further Education, and
the higher vocational education conundrum
Presentation by: Nick Davy, National HE Policy Manager
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Higher
Education
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Question?
Is it appropriate and efficient for the state to
subsidise mainly young people from
middle/higher income backgrounds for ¾
years to study literature and poetry?
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Spending
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outcome
The imperative
“The issue is how the higher education sector
makes its contribution to deficit reduction”
Vince Cable statement to Parliament
12 Oct 2011
The budget to 2015
HEFCE T- grants cut (£5 bil to < £2 bil)
Student loans rise (£3 bil to £7 bil)
Govt capitalises its expenditure
BIS total spending on HE rises
University income up an estimated 10%
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HEFCE
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Old regime
Same funding rates
Simpler rules
New regime
Differential price
Medicine £10,000
STEM £1,500
New C1 Price Group IT
W/participation
Student Number
Control
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The HE
Students at the Heart of the system?
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The New HE Market – Dynamism and Efficiency?
Market Characteristics:
• Price - loosened, but controlled. Loans not Price
• Entry- yes, but limited; Exit – unlikely
• Profit maximisers?
• Competition – mainly within a differentiated market;
heritage; continuing ‘cold spots’? More demand than
supply
• Information – PI/KIS
• Technology – Productivity – Blend/Flex/ICT?
Regulator - HEFCE
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Movements
since
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the White Paper
Movements since the White Paper?
HEFCE from Regulator to Overseer (BIS Response to
WP/TC)
Marketisation to Liberalisation?
Places for High Achieving Students likely to grow
(tariff)
Limited Growth for Lower Price Courses (margin)
Private Sector – unregulated until at least 2013
Possible problems with Access – Adult Level 3 Loans
Evidence: decrease in part time applications
Diversity – new entrants
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The Problem?
England’s economic/training problems:
• Low level skills (Leach)
– Low skills equilibrium (Low skills work low aspirations)
• Lack of intermediate skills (UKCES)
But:
• All the financial incentives – 3 Years Bachelors degrees
• Poor progression ‘structures’ from vocational Q to HEFCE
funded HE (L3Voc Q – 50%; A Levels – 90%; AA – 13%,
including NPHE)
• Separate sectors – secondary, FE, HE
• Under-used – Accreditation of Learning
• Lack of diversity – 3 year degree part or fulltime fits all
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Access/WP
still
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a major problem
Participation rates of disadvantaged young people (Q1 and Q2) in entry tariff
institution groups (OFFA)
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Higher
Vocational
Education and the House
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of Lords: A comparative case study
Weakness of (Higher) Technical Education:
• Samuelson (1884) – weakness of technical education
• Industrial Training Act 1964 – establishment of industry training
boards
• Employment and Training Act 1973 – the establishment of the
Manpower Services Commission
• Weiner – the anti-technical education English culture (1981);
• the ‘low skills equilibrium’ argued by Finegold and Soskice in 1988
• Dearing (1997) – foundation degree development
• UKCES (2011 2012)
• The Skills Commission (2011)
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Higher
level
technical skills: supply and
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demand issues
The Evidence:
Supply - Structure/Systems: “Our study has shown that there is no clear or simple
vocational ‘ladder’ of progression to higher levels”
[Connor H and Little (2005) Vocational ladders or crazy paving? Making your way to
higher levels London LSDA; revisited in 2009 – same conclusions]
UKCES has found that “19% of employers reported skills gaps in 2009 and that
the highest number of skills shortage’s are accounted for in Associate
Professional and Technical Occupations”
[UKCES, The UK Employment and Skills Almanac 2010: Evidence Report 26, 2011, p. 116]
“we are currently weak in the vital intermediate technical skills that are
increasingly important as jobs become more highly skilled and technological
change accelerates”
[DBIS, Skills For Sustainable Growth, 2010, p. 4]
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Creating
more diverse HE system; supply/funding
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decides demand?
HEFCE Paper (Diversity: Opportunities and Challenges 2010/11):
The major problem of creating diversity is a cultural one – the
popularity of the 3 year residential Degree.
Some Potential: (a) Part-time (b) FEC HE (c) Accelerated/Intensive – but
probably lack of demand.
But – Is it not a funding issue? Funding drives institutional behaviour
and therefore demand behaviour?
• 30% of the £2.1bn spent on adult FE student funding is allocated to
full-time students. (0.67 million students)
• A rough estimate is that over 90% of the £10.3bn spent on HE student
funding is allocated to full-time students (1.1 million students)
[Corney/Fletcher (2007) : Adult Skills and HE: Separation or union?]
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College
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Claims - HE in FE:
• Deliver distinctive higher vocational education [not
entirely supported by Parry/Scott]
• Short cycle HE; sub degree – HNC/D; FD; NPHEprofessional/higher vocational
• Complementary to HEI suuply [supported by Parry/Scott]
• Local – lower living costs[supported by Parry/Scott]
• Access/WP – Localism [supported by Parry/Scott]
• Local Regeneration – inward investment; skills; close to
employers [Evidence?]
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New?
? “ taking courses below advanced level and studying part-time. If too
many of these colleges were removed from their intimate connection
with local industry and commerce there might well be a serious risk
that the nation's needs for technicians and skilled manpower generally
would be increasingly neglected. The close local relationships that
these colleges have done so much to foster must be preserved.
Moreover, if the colleges as a whole ceased to be administered by local
government there is some risk that the links with school education which are essential if technical education is to provide an alternative
ladder of higher education for boys and girls who are unable to follow,
or are unsuited to, a sixth form and university course - will also be
weakened”
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Some
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movements: Supply
Where structures/ladders (supply) exists demand
influenced?
Some contemporary data* on progression from Advanced
Apprenticeships:
• From AA to HEFCE funded + NPHE [2/3 years after
completion] – 13%
•
– Accountancy – 50%
– Engineering – 21%
– Business administration – 19%
– Health and Care – 25%
– Children’s Care – 19%
Figures also available for L3 Q progression by county/region
*Smith S and Joslin H (2011) Apprentice Progression Tracking Project. Centre for WBL. University of Greenwich
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Some
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Continue to support the expansion of cost-effective HE at non-research
providers. (this will allow growth in numbers)
Re-examine support for part time HE
Build on the apprenticeships pyramid for HA in appropriate vocational areas.
Address issues with HA – funding, transferability/portability
Develop a CATS for applied/vocational HE; clear progression pathways
Promote QCF at higher levels
Support the credit of quality in-house company/charity training schemes
Create and promote robust APL schemes
Integrate and promote NPHE – Loans?
Allow student numbers quota transfer
Ensure prestigious Universities meet WP targets
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Medium
Term
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Some Ideas – and this is the medium term?
Create a system of tertiary education not a sector- Permeability
between secondary/further/higher – A tertiary system: collaboration
and competition
Colleges – key: sponsorship/links of academies/UTC; supply to HE;
apprenticeships at all levels; HE
Use Loans and funding to support a diversity of HE delivery
and
Need for a cultural shift – long-term – Political leadership
Promotion of the importance/status of the applied/practical
Apprenticeships/Higher apprenticeships
Involvement of the professions – social mobility
One Planning and Funding Body/Greater integration?
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Questions
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Thank You
Questions and Discussion