Transcript 44. Developing FurtherHigher Education. (MS PowerPoint 680KB)

Developing FurtherHigher education
Ann-Marie Bathmaker, UWE Bristol
Brille
Bristol Centre for Research in Education and Lifelong Learning
Keynote presentation
UWE Federation 1st Annual Conference
The Student Journey
1-2 May 2008
UWE Bristol
Acknowledgements
This presentation is based on work contributing to an
ESRC TLRP project entitled Universal access and dual
regimes of further and higher education.
The research team comprises:
Diane Burns, Anne Thompson, Val Thompson, Cate
Goodlad (University fieldwork research team)
Andy Roberts; David Dale; Will Thomas; Liz Halford
(Institution based researchers)
Ann-Marie Bathmaker (BRILLE, UWE), Greg Brooks,
Gareth Parry (University of Sheffield), David Smith
(University of Leeds) (Project directors)
Karen Kitchen (Project administrator)
Overview
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Why Further-Higher Partnerships?
Why now?
Issues in Further Higher partnerships
Seamlessness, transitions and
progression
What is ‘higherness’?
Concluding comments
WP, dual sector institutions and
further-higher partnerships
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Policy imperative to widen
participation in HE in context of
‘knowledge economy’
2 tertiary sectors in England:
LSC/FE sector and HE sector
‘Dual sector’ FE/HE institutions
Further-Higher partnerships
The FurtherHigher project asked
How do students experience
transitions between further and
higher education, and between
different stages of undergraduate
study (level 5/6)?
FH project fieldwork
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Fieldwork in 4 dual sector institutions
Transition between level 3 (FE) and level 4
(HE) AND between level 5 (2 yr HE) and level
6 (final year UG degree)
Interviews with students, tutors, institutional,
managers
documentary analysis
collection of fieldwork observation records
photographs of space and place
FurtherHigher education
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What is the scale of activity?
How important is transition between
level 3 and level 4 (FE to HE) and
between level 5 and level 6 (short cycle
HE to final year Bachelor degree) for
institutions that are ‘dual sector’ or in
FE/HE partnerships?
Student progression in 4 case study institutions:
studying within institution, studying at another institution,
not continuing to study
10
8
7
6
Staying
Moving
Don't Know
Not continuing Study
5
4
3
2
Citygate College
Northgreen Federal College
East Health College
Subject/Vocational area and Institution
HND/FD Music
Technology
ND
Photography/Design
Fd Early Years
ND Sports
ND Business
Studies
FD, HND, HNC
AVCE Health and
Social Care
Access to HE
FdSc Sports
Therapy
0
ND Early Years
1
Bridging to Culinary
Arts Management
Number os Student Interviewees
9
Southleigh University
All internal transfers from FE level 3 to HE courses at Citygate
College from 2003/04 to 2005/06
SUMMARY TABLE 2
OVERALL INTERNAL TRANSFER FROM FE LEVEL 3 TO HE COURSES AT CITYGATE COLLEGE
2003/2004
TOTAL
867
TRANSFER TO FOUNDATION DEGREE
76
TRANSFER TO BATCHELOR DEGREE
57
TOTAL
133
%
15.34%
2004/2005
TOTAL
973
TRANSFER TO FOUNDATION DEGREE
74
TRANSFER TO BATCHELOR DEGREE
63
TOTAL
137
14%
2005/2006
TOTAL
1209
TRANSFER TO FOUNDATION DEGREE
54
TRANSFER TO BATCHELOR DEGREE
29
TOTAL
83
6.86%
Total numbers in column B were arrived at by deleting all first/ second year entries for all multiple year
programmes.
Note: Even though Citygate College is a dual sector institution with
approximately 60% HE / 40% FE provision, FE/HE transfer nos are
small
Internal transfers from HE level 5 (Fd degree,
HND) to Bachelor degree final year at Citygate
HE College from 2003/04 to 2005/06
????????
No data collected at present
(Not a key management concern or
priority?)
HE transitions: a site study example
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Sports Therapy at Citygate College
Citygate College is an HE sector
institution with substantial FE
The College offers:
BTEC National Diploma in Sport (Sport
Development and Fitness)
FdSc in Sports Therapy
BSc in Sports Therapy
Student transitions and progression
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How do students get on to and progress
through a Foundation degree and a BSc
in Sports Therapy?
Getting in
Getting on
Moving up
Getting a BSc
Getting in to a Foundation
degree – using official sources
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40 degrees in Sports Therapy are listed on
the UCAS website (BSc and FdSc)
10 institutions offer FdSc in Sports Therapy
Only 7 listed on the Foundation degree
forward website
On the UCAS website, Sports Therapy search
under Foundation Degree and Bachelor
degree listings brings up NO courses. Sports
Therapy courses can only be found by keying
Sports Therapy into the general SEARCH
menu option.
Selection of Sports Therapy Foundation Degrees
offered for 2008 start (1)
University
College
Birmingham
Link: Univ of
Birmingham
UCAS points
FdSc: 100
BSc: 200
Progression routes offered
3rd year of BSc in Sports Therapy at the college
Milton Keynes
College
Link: Univ of
Bedfordshire
UCAS points: 80-120
BSc at Univ of Bedfordshire:
160+
Progression routes offered
3rd year of BSc in Sports Therapy at the University of Bedfordshire
Truro College
Link: Univ of
Plymouth
UCAS points: 60-80
Progression routes offered
BSc (Hons) Performance and Coaching, offered by the University of
Plymouth at Truro College
Selection of Sports Therapy Foundation Degrees offered for 2008 start (2)
North East
Surrey College
of Technology
(NESCOT)
Link: Univ of Kent
UCAS points: not specified
BSc at Univ of Kent: 200-300
BSc at Univ of Bedfordshire:
160+
Progression routes offered
Links with Univ of Kent and Univ of Luton (the Univ of Luton is now the Univ
of Bedfordshire, but appears as Univ of Luton on NESCOT website). Both run
BSc degrees in Sports Therapy
City College
Plymouth
Link: Univ of
Plymouth
UCAS points: 80
Progression routes offered
Subject to specific requirements, you may progress to:
• the final year of the BSc (Hons) Health and Fitness degree at the University
of Plymouth
• the final year of the BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy degree at the University
College of St. Mark & St. John
• the final year of the BSc (Hons) Fitness and Coaching degree at the
University College of St. Mark & St. John
• final year health and fitness degree programmes at a range of universities
• a wide range of careers in the health, fitness and sports therapy industries.
Getting in to a Foundation degree: internal
progression
Total numbers taking BTEC National Diploma in Sport in
2003-04 at Citygate College
No. of Students
Y2 BTEC National
2003-04
Internal transfer to FdSc
Sports Therapy
8
Internal transfer to BSc
Sports Therapy
1
3
Getting on: moving through the Foundation
degree (internal progression)
Total numbers taking FdSc in Sports Therapy at Citygate
College starting 2004-2005
Y1
2004-05
Y2
2005-06
Completed
FdSc
No. of
Students
39
30
27
Moving on to the BSc: internal progression
Students in Y3 of BSc Sports Therapy at Citygate College
in 2006/07
Final year BSc
students
No of
students
From FdSc Sports
Therapy
22
From Y2 BSc Sports
Therapy
From Y3 BSc Sports
Therapy (repeat year)
41
Total students
64
1
Completion of BSc: Final outcomes of students in
Sports Therapy at Citygate College in 2006/07
Degree
FdSc/BSc students BSc/BSc students
classification
1st
2.1
2.2
3
Total
#
%
#
%
0
6
8
6
20
0
30
40
30
100
4
15
14
4
37
11
41
38
11
100
Student transitions and
progression: issues
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Finding a Foundation degree through official external
sources is complex
The college internal BTEC National programme is
small. 50% continued to FdSc or BSc, but 50% was
only 4 students.
On the FdSc there was attrition between start and
completion (from 39 to 27).
Progression to BSc was high, (22 out of 27) but 5
students did not continue.
Degree results for BSc/BSc students were comparable
to national HEI benchmarks. They were lower when
the FdSc/BSc students were included.
Bridging the gap between
level 5 and level 6
Official provision is a 3 day bridging summer
school after the end of Y2. Philip Smith, Sports
Therapy lecturer explains:
“They all have a handbook, a Student Handbook, and
that outlines the progression for them. There is a
bridging Summer School as well between Year 2 and
3 which is only 3 days, but basically that’s to give the
Foundation Students an idea of what a dissertation
is, more training and support before they even start
a dissertation.”
Students’ perceptions of ‘bridging’
Tanya:
“Well we had that 3 days. That was the sort
of preparation, but even so I don’t know if it
really sort of - it was kind of general and, I
don’t know really how much I got out of
that. I think I was expecting to get more out
of it to be honest and sort of learn more
about - we were sort of told more or less
how important the dissertation was and not
really that much more.”
Students’ perceptions of ‘bridging’
Sarah:
“a bridging course thing for two days, but it wasn’t
just about dissertation, it was like…. I’d say about two
hours of it or something and the rest was boring. I
think it was for three days and on the third day we
didn’t turn up because it was that pointless. It was
like we could have just come here in Year 3 and not
had the bridging thing and we would have been totally
fine. The stuff they were telling us we should have
already known from Years 1 and 2, things like
referencing or things like essay writing or report
writing - and we’ve been doing it for two years now
and so why are you telling me again, over two/three
days - no. So the third day we just didn’t come in - or
we went to one dissertation talk.”
The mystery of transition to
final year
Tanya:
“There’s a man who’s come in and talked about
dissertations if we’re going to come next year, he
said you’ll have to do that. Yeah that was good as
well to get some ideas going around our heads,
because he said “don’t leave it all to the last
minute”.
But she said later:
“I think it would be very useful if we knew now
what we were going to do, what sort of books, we
could all be putting a bit of effort in now. But we
probably won’t get the reading lists til we’ve been
here a month. We should get it in the first week….”
Being pro-active about transition
Rosemary:
“We all got given tutors about 3 weeks ago if
you hadn’t already got them, whereas I went
to see the tutor that I’d wanted before the
summer. I phoned him up and then basically
I’ve been seeing him a couple of times
throughout the summer and then mainly
every week now since we’ve been back, so
he’s keeping me on track. He’ll just set me
little things up, get so many words done by
the following week, so it keeps it constant.”
How do students perceive
‘higherness’?
Higherness is “harder”
 More intense
 A lot more work
 Stricter deadlines
 Harvard referencing
 Writing 2000 words
 The DISSERTATION
How do students perceive
‘higherness’?
Requires more independence
 Independent study and self-direction
 No ‘spoon-feeding’
 More independent research
 Using the library a lot more
 Less individual support
How do students perceive
‘higherness’?
More distant relationships with others
 Much bigger classes
 Different atmosphere: not so close knit
Lecturers less approachable
 Doctors and professors: lofty and
straight-laced
What is ‘FurtherHigherness’?
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Harder, but (possibly) progressively harder,
with Y1 of FdSc not too big a jump,
particularly from level 3 vocational courses
Range of support available, esp study skills
centres. Overlapping FE and HE support
facilities
Closer relationships with some course tutors –
evidence that students seek out someone
they trust to help them
Concluding comments
FurtherHigher education:
The wider impact of developing
higher education in the context of
dual sector institutions and furtherhigher partnerships.
Redefining the field
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Changing the configuration of the
landscape of HE
Increasing diversity
Increasing complexity
Increasing stratification
Reshaping student engagement and
opportunities?
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Complex picture of student experience and
interaction with HE opportunities
Access, progression & outcomes are not
straightforward, smooth and seamless
Dual sector HE and further-higher partnerships in HE
can be seen as enabling and constraining (both
opening up opportunities and cooling out aspirations)
We must strive to ensure that FurtherHigher higher
education is high quality higher education.
The FurtherHigher Project
http://www.shef.ac.uk/furtherhigher/
brille
Bristol Centre for Research in Education and Lifelong Learning