Organisation and Policy: Influencing Public Policy: Selected Policy Papers

Establish a new Foundation Degree qualification closely rooted in employment needs and opportunities in local areas

Create a work-focussed flexible trajectory for entrance to and exit from higher education over a period of time

Further expand higher education opportunities accessible to groups currently under-represented in higher education

Centrally involve employers, increasing numbers of whom have experience and expertise in the development of successful models of work-based learning, in the design and delivery of the new programme

Building on and develop collaborative relationships between higher and further education.

Work needs to be done urgently to establish the value and attractiveness of the new qualification with all stakeholders. The demand from employers for the Foundation Degree qualification appears hard to gauge. Unless employers respond to the new opportunities in sufficient numbers, the aspiration in the Consultation Document will not be realised. All the evidence demonstrates the importance of moving from supplier-driven to demand-driven models if higher education is to contribute to the need to increase the skills and knowledge of the current and future work-force.

There is a need for a greater breadth of vision to enable the Foundation Degree qualification to be successful as a higher education qualification which articulates efficiently and effectively with honours degree programmes. The aim to reduce the length of time it takes students starting out on two year programmes to achieve an honours degree is commendable and will be welcomed by adult students in particular.

It is important to move away from describing HE programmes solely in terms of the full-time model, i.e. ‘two-year programme’. For part-time undergraduate students, a key target group, this reinforces their marginal status in higher education. A more useful alternative would be to describe the qualification in credit terms which would signal not only varying time-scales of completion but the potential for accreditation of work experience alongside credit achieved through study.

There is a need to integrate the proposal closely with current developments and debates on quality and qualifications in further and higher education. At HE level, it is particularly important that the development of the Foundation Degree takes account of the work of the QAA Group currently reviewing sub-degree qualifications. Without this level of reconciliation, there is a real danger that the proposal will become no more than an ‘add-on’ arrangement unable to deliver comprehensively on the aspirations set out in the document.

There is a need to respond to learners with different motivations and experiences. The target groups of learners identified in the document comprise a broad and disparate constituency. On the one hand, the proposal aims to address the needs of working adults seeking a theoretical and academic underpinning to back up and assist the development of their technical skills. On the other hand, it seeks to meet the needs of young people who have explicitly chosen to not to follow an academic route and are therefore seeking a focus on work-related rather than theoretical dimensions of study. Later in the document, it is explained that the intention is also to include ‘people whom the education system has failed in the past but who are seeking a second opportunity’. These three categories represent learners with overlapping but fundamentally very different sets of aspirations. These differences are acknowledged in the document and to meet the needs of all three successfully will require the development of models responsive to this heterogeneity of needs.

The status of the Foundation Degree should be explicitly established in relation to other sub-degree qualifications. It is unclear from the Consultation Document whether the problem with current sub-degree courses is seen to be the range of qualifications available to the learner, or the extent to which the curriculum responds to employer needs.

Consideration should be given to the broader flexibility of the framework within which the Foundation Degree will be located. Many, although not all, HEIs enable students to transfer between programmes in order to achieve their academic goals most effectively. The introduction of the Foundation Degree must extend rather than threaten these arrangements and develop mechanisms which make this possible.

It is essential that parity of esteem for the new qualification is demonstrated across the sector. The Consultation Document makes it clear that opportunities are expected to extend beyond the current range. of curriculum routes offered by HND/Cs, currently located chiefly in the post 92 universities, Colleges of HE and FE colleges. Opportunities should therefore also be taken to develop Foundation Degrees which articulate with curriculum areas more characteristic of the pre-92 universities. If the Foundation Degree is perceived to give access to only a limited range of progression opportunities, its status will inevitably disadvantage adult learners following this route.

There is a need to clarify how Foundation Degrees will articulate with current Access programmes in further education for ‘people whom the education system has failed in the past but are seeking a second opportunity’ (3.5). Many Access programmes are themselves vocational progression routes within HE, and have constituted an important route into degree programmes for mature and non-traditional learners, including unwaged adults.

Parity of esteem should not only be sought in relation to academic value but must also be established in relation to professional qualifications. Professional bodies are powerful stakeholders in vocational higher education. It is important that professional bodies are brought on board at an early stage to support the development of the Foundation Degree, and their influence and requirements must be taken into account in the planning of the new qualification

It will be very important to establish appropriate guidance and support mechanisms for learners where flexibility, modularity and diverse opportunities across the HE and FE sectors make choice a critical component in the learning process. If a cross-sector programme such as the Foundation Degree is to be an effective vehicle for widening participation, particular care will need to be taken in the delicate negotiation with learners at the points of entry and exit.

The development phase should look as a matter of urgency at processes for negotiating properly-supported quality work placements. The quality of the tri-partite contract between learner, employer and course provider will be pivotal to the proposal’s success and should be based on clear understanding of the purposes and benefits for each partner. There should be genuine involvement of the learner in the processes of evaluation and reflection which themselves should be key accredited components of placement. Much good work has already been undertaken to identify good practice in work placements, for example by the recent HEQE publication on Industry and Higher Education Links.

As a vehicle for widening participation, Foundation Degree initiatives will need to address the need for quality work placements to be made equally available to all adult learners, including groups traditionally at a disadvantage in the labour market, including black people and disabled people. This implies a strong steer to careers services in both further and higher education in working with employers to challenge discrimination and ensure comparability of opportunity.

The mechanism for progression on to the honours route is currently unclear. In particular, the purpose of the recommended summer school is not made explicit. Is this additional period of study necessary in order to enable students to attain the required level of credit to facilitate progression? If this is the case, the understanding of credit as a mechanism for progression is confused, as credit accumulation is not by definition time-linked and therefore learners should be able to attain 240 credits independent of time constraints imposed by the inflexible framework of a ‘course’ structure.

In order for the proposal to be successful, it will be important to build a head of steam during the first two critical years. While NIACE finds much to commend in the consultation document, it will be a real challenge to design and implement such a complex proposal in the time available. The proposal as defined will need to take account of a wide range of relationships between diverse constituencies of learners, differing needs of employers and varied approaches of providers. In addition, it will involve ambitious plans for delivery: both full and part-time modes, academic and work-based, face-to-face and on-line.

There is a need to develop guidelines for new consortia working on developing new curriculum areas and new cross-sectoral relationship at the same time. Experience of those working on the HEFCE Widening Participation Special Programmes initiative has demonstrated some of the problems arising when ‘shot-gun’ partnerships are put in place to plan and deliver new programmes within a short time-scale, without institutions understanding each others’ cultures, priorities and operating protocols. Time, resources and support to enable well-rooted partnerships to develop will be critical.

The proposal comes at a time when attention has been diverted away from the HE/FE interface with the work required in setting up local Learning and Skills Councils and the uncertainty as to how funding will be organised in the future. It is crucial that the development of the HE/FE relationship, alongside that with employers, is supported and monitored not only at the pilot stage, when existing partnership arrangements are likely to form the basis for development of new initiatives, but as new local arrangements are stimulated beyond this stage. NIACE and its partners would welcome the opportunity to contribute to this process.

While the development of Local Learning and Skills Councils will form a sound basis for the further development of relationships between FE and employers in particular, the role of the National Training Organisations in the development of Foundation Degrees must be actively encouraged. Some are small and fledgling organisations which will need funding support to release the resources necessary to enable them to participate effectively in the process.

It is crucial that progression is planned in as an integrated part of the Foundation Degree so that the model is not one of ‘abuttal’ but a model enabling the different routes to connect coherently at all levels. As already suggested, this is a challenge to how the conventional honours programme itself is constructed and delivered, requiring the incorporation of study and assessment approaches which correspond more closely to those developed at sub-degree level. Inevitably this will be controversial and will be strongly resisted by some universities. However, if higher education institutions are genuinely to have a function in the development of skilled and employable learners, current efforts to introduce a wider range of core skills into the curriculum, while commendable, are inadequate to the larger task of designing learning opportunities which emerge from a closer connection between higher education and employment.