NIACE welcomes new HE framework Thursday, November 5, 2009 - 17:23

Education should be about more than just the economy says NIACE, as it broadly welcomes Higher Ambitions - the new framework for Higher Education (HE) - published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on Tuesday, 3 November 2009.

Mark Ravenhall, Director of Operations at NIACE, said:

"NIACE supports the underpinning principles in Higher Ambitions, like widening participation and fairer access to HE through Universities and Further Education colleges. We recognise the challenge of developing a new framework for HE at a time of reduced public spending. The financial challenge, however, is just one among many facing providers who have to cater for a changing demography of people wanting to access higher level skills. Individuals will want to access learning in ways that suit their lifestyles and in subjects that suit their needs."

"It was great to hear Lord Mandleson say that ‘Every course has an intrinsic value', on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme. HE serves all the community not just the economy. But where it serves the economy it is important that we think about new ways of engaging with employers about the value of higher level skills and how they are delivered in the workplace."

HE serves all the community not just the economy.

Mark Ravenhall, Director of Operations at NIACE

John Storan, Chair of the Forum for Access and Continuing Education (FACE), said:

"I very much welcome the general thrust of the proposals in the Higher Ambitions paper, in particular the renewed commitment to open HE opportunities to more and different learners following the Milburn report on social mobility. What I would describe as the widening participation dividend, although not explicitly mentioned in the report, should be seen as a recognisable outcome of the specific proposals on access and widening participation."

"FACE has being putting the case for an HE system that meets the needs of different learners over many years and therefore the proposals for a more flexible HE provision are most welcome. However, such flexible provision will require a funding system which is in effect neutral in respect of learning mode and it is not clear how far these proposals address this."

The Universities Association for Lifelong Learning (UALL), said:

"We welcome Lord Mandelson's prioritisation of widening participation and social mobility and plans to increase the number of part-time students in higher education. If these ambitions are to be fully realised then it is essential that they are underpinned by improved and sustained support for part-time students, who have been increasingly disadvantaged by financial support systems, and more recently by the withdrawal of funding for equivalent or lower qualifications."

"UALL also supports the emphasis on economic development and the role of universities in delivering higher level skills, but this should not be to the exclusion of seeing a value in education for broader purposes. We hope that these ambitions will be supported by a funding model which allows universities to deliver a broad range of lifelong learning courses."

"In Wales it is understood that a ministerial statement on higher education strategy will be made before the end of November."