Memorandum submitted by the Higher Education
Academy
INTRODUCTION
The Higher Education Academy
1. The Higher Education Academy is an independent
organisation funded by grants from the four UK higher education
funding bodies, subscriptions from higher education institutions,
and grant and contract income for specific initiatives. The Academy
supports higher education institutions, discipline groups and
all staff in their work to enhance the student learning experience.
2. The Academy works at a strategic level
with senior staff in HEIs and other staff in higher education
who contribute to the student learning experience and undertakes
research and inquiry to provide an evidence base for good policy
and practice in learning and teaching. At the heart of the Academy's
work is our network of Subject Centres, based in institutions
across the UK and working with around 85% of university and college-based
HE departments. Each Centre focuses on the development needs of
teaching staff in specific academic disciplines throughout the
UK.
3. The Academy is a centre for evidence-informed
practice in higher education and the UK's focal point for enhancing
teaching and student learning in higher education. We advise and
assist HEIs, subjects and individuals through our extensive dissemination
and research activities, including funded projects on issues of
central importance to teaching and student learning. We provide
a place to share, broker and network examples of good practice
in managing the quality of the student learning experience and
encouraging effective teaching and assessment for an increasingly
diverse student population.
Evidence to the Select Committee
4. The Academy's evidence to the Select
Committee inquiry focuses on those questions raised by the Committee
that relate most directly to the student learning experience.
It is important to note that there are no black and white answers
to many of the issues raised. Our evidence draws on the experience
of different subject centres working with different discipline
groups, on the evidence drawn from our work with institutions
and on the results of research carried out or commissioned by
the Academy.
We would be happy to supplement our written
memorandum by providing oral evidence to the Committee's inquiry.
THE ROLE
OF UNIVERSITIES
OVER THE
NEXT 5-10 YEARS
What do students want from universities: what
should the student experience involve?
Research evidence
5. There is a considerable volume of research
evidence on what students want from universities. The Higher Education
Academy has funded or commissioned research on a number of related
issues, including:
Changing Fee Regimes and Their Impact on Student
Attitudes to Higher Education
Nick Foskett, David Roberts and Felix Maringe
August 2006
This research provides evidence of the impact
of the introduction of fees on the decision-making of young people
about higher education admission and on the shape and organisation
of the higher education undergraduate market place. The research
was based on a study of the response of HE institutions in England
to the new fee model in terms of their operational processes and
admissions policies and practices; a study of what potential applicants
know and understand about the new fee regime and how this is impacting
on their decisions about application and on the their expectations
about the nature and value of higher education; and a study of
the implementation of established variable fee regimes in Australia
and New Zealand to inform understanding of the possible impact
in England.
6. The main findings are summarised below:
1. Potential students had a broad knowledge
of the new fees system, and most knew that they do not have to
pay fees upfront and can get loans. However, most had little knowledge
of the detailed issues related to funding their study, such as
the institutional support available to them in the form of grants,
bursaries and scholarships
2. Students are likely to be rational about
the proposed fees increase in 2006, expecting that they will translate
into better services and support for them during their years of
study
3. They are unlikely to base their decision
to go to university primarily on the issue of fees; some are strongly
inclined towards accessing careers first and using HE as a career
enhancement strategy rather than as career finding strategy
4. There does not seem to be any substantial
evidence from Australia and New Zealand that suggests that increasing
fees reduces participation in HE
5. There is a likelihood of greater local
participation in HE as a strategy to cushion students from increased
costs of study. Alongside this will be a strong likelihood of
parental involvement in the decision-making of their children
about going to university.
6. Universities are moving to expand international
and postgraduate taught degrees, partly as a result of fears that
the undergraduate market will now decline, and of a predictable
decline in the school-leaver cohort. However, Masters places may
be difficult to fill, as future graduates seek a break from debt
and feel the need to start earning more rapidly.
7. Blended learning and accredited Continuing
Professional Development are likely to be key areas for future
expansion as students move away from the traditional model of
immediate progression to full-time postgraduate education, in
favour of a more flexible "earn as you learn" lifestyle.
8. The undergraduates just above the threshold
for financial support are likely to suffer from the impact of
higher fees. Universities predict that the heaviest burden will
fall on the middle-class students, who will be exempt from grants
and bursaries, but mandated to pay the full fee.
9. Student advisers and counsellors are predicting
more complaints from UK students who will regard themselves as
customers with rights and higher expectations. Tensions between
international students and home students are also likely to rise,
following Australian examples.
10. HEIs are likely to put extra resources
from "top-up fees" into their estate and to improve
student services.
11. In England, the cap on fees has also
inflated the pricing market, as the effect of peer pressure and
the assumption that the cap would be a benchmark of "good
quality" has driven nearly every HEI to price all its undergraduate
degree courses at £3,000, irrespective of the cost of teaching
or the career prospects associated with the degree.
Full details are available on the Higher Education
Academy at www.heacademy.ac.uk/4407.htm
First Year Experience
Mantz Yorke and Bernard Longden
First phase report to be published late 2006.
7. The aims of this research are:
1. To survey first-year, full-time students
from a wide range of institutional types and subject areas about
their perceptions of this initial experience of higher education.
2. To investigate the reasons of those who
do not return for a second year in the same institution.
3. To compare the reasons for non-completion
with those given in previous studies.
4. To explore the possibility of a connection
between the results obtained from (1) and (2).
8. The first phase report has not yet been
published. However preliminary findings are as below:
1. 80% of students were happy with their
choice of subject and the majority were confident that it would
lead to a graduate level job.
2. the more students know about their institutions
and courses before enrolling, the less likely they are to consider
dropping out.
3. the likelihood of withdrawal was considerably
affected by two key factors: students' prior knowledge of their
institution and their course, and how stimulating they felt their
teaching to be. 41% of students who knew little or nothing about
their course before enrolment had thought of withdrawing, compared
with 25% of those who knew a moderate amount or a lot.
4. While on the whole students seemed to
be coping with their academic workloads, a third of respondents
found academic work harder than they had expected it to be, and
38% found difficulty in balancing academic and other commitments.
5. Teaching was generally seen as supportive,
and students felt stimulated in their learning.
6. Staff were generally perceived as friendly:
in most subject areas a majority of students said that at least
two members of staff knew them by name.
7. Most students thought that the feedback
they received supported their learning, but in around one-third
of the subject areas they did not think it was sufficiently prompt.
8. 72% were confident that their programme
would lead to an appropriate graduate-level job.
9. For more than one-third of respondents,
motivation levels had not been as high as they felt they might
have been. Just under one-third had not done the expected background
reading, and only one in ten had done any reading beyond the programme's
requirements. Just over half of the respondents had missed some
formally-timetabled sessions.
10. The majority of students (57%) said that
they needed to undertake paid employment to help fund their studies.
Worry about financing was a concern to a similar majority (58%).
11. The survey did not find any marked differences
according to gender, nor between students from managerial/professional
backgrounds and those from supervisory/technical/manual backgrounds,
nor between those who were the first in their immediate family
to go into HE and those who were not. These findings suggest that
students from "widening participation" backgrounds are
experiencing HE in much the same way as their more privileged
peers. Differences according to ethnicity were also small and
mainly showed lower levels of engagement in the social aspects
of HE.
12. Students from outside Europe gave broadly
similar responses to home and EU students, except that they had
a slightly lower engagement in the social side of HE. Non-UK students
were slightly less satisfied with student support services than
UK students. They also tended to keep to themselves to a greater
extent than UK students (especially so in the case of the non-European
students).
Full details are available on the Higher Education
Academy website at www.heacademy.ac.uk/FYEsurvey.htm
THE POSTGRADUATE
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
SURVEY (IN
PILOT PHASE)
9. The Postgraduate Research Experience
Survey (PRES) is a continuous service made available to all HE
institutions that have postgraduate research students. It is intended
to help institutions enhance the quality of postgraduate research
degree provision by collecting feedback from current research
students in a systematic and user-friendly way.
10. The Academy has developed PRES for use
by any HE institution in the UK that wishes to use it. It is generic
in nature, but allows HE institutions to add some specific questions
of their own if they wish to. The system allows comparison of
the institutional results with the overall results.
11. The pilot phase involved eight institutions
The main administration of PRES will take place in February-March
2007.
12. For full details please visit the Higher
Education Academy website at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/3919.htm
TAUGHT MASTERS
PROGRAMMES EXPERIENCE
SURVEY
13. The purpose of this survey is to gain
feedback from students studying on taught Masters programmes in
the UK on their experience of their courses. The results will
help institutions to revise and improve their taught Masters programmes,
inform the choices of future applicants to higher education and
contribute to public accountability.
14. This survey is not a census of HEIs,
but will be based on a representative sample of HEIs who are willing
to take part. The main objectives are:
1. Conducting a scoping exercise of all taught
Masters programmes in the UK (using HESA data) and developing
a typology of those programmes, which can inform the HE sector
2. Taking into account the specific nature
of the student experience and teaching, learning and assessment
styles on taught Masters programmes
3. Providing a firm understanding of the
level of overall student satisfaction on taught Masters programmes
4. Providing more specific and comparative
analysis of international and domestic students on these programmes
5. Developing robust conclusions and recommendations
for improvement and quality enhancement of these programmes
6. The web survey will be set up during the
autumn term and will be launched at the start of 2007 for around
three months.
For full details please visit the Higher Education
Academy website at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/4876.htm
THE NATIONAL
STUDENT SURVEY:
SUPPORTING INSTITUTIONS
15. The National Student Survey is a survey
of students' experience. It gives the opportunity to look at students'
experiences of their courses and the quality of their learning,
and how we can improve these.
16. The Higher Education Academy is working
with the sector to develop understanding of how students' perceptions
of their experiences at university should be interpreted in relation
to their previous experiences, dispositions and learning activities
so that changes in policy and practice can be based on reliable
evidence. In particular:
1. We are taking a lead role in identifying
how the Ipsos MORI NSS dissemination website (intended for internal
use in institutions and students' unions), and feedback to HEIs
more generally, can be developed to serve them better.
2. At HEIs' request we are working with a
number of individual institutions to support them in using the
results of the NSS to improve the student learning experience.
3. We have commissioned a study on the ways
in which universities are using the NSS results and website in
their own procedures for improving the student learning experience.
4. At the request of the Higher Education
Funding Council for England (HEFCE), we are working with Ipsos
MORI to develop and piloting a "bank" of optional extra
questions that HEIs may wish to add for their own use in the 2007
online survey. We will also be testing the validity of these new
questions, which relate to the "learning community"
and "intellectual motivation".
Views on the student experience
17. There has been debate about the need
to treat students more like customers in an era of increasing
fees: to meet their needs for good teaching, high quality services
and facilities that are available ubiquitously and 24/7. This
plays to the notion of a university education as a means to creating
employable, skills-rich graduates.
18. The traditional opposing view is the
idea of higher education as generating a culture of tolerance
and transmitting the values of civilisation. Both views have been
turned to the extrinsic purpose of serving a country's needs,
by fuelling the knowledge economy, or by creating a better cultivated
and well-balanced population.
19. Neither view equates with what students
themselves report. They have a complicated set of requirements
including flexibility, autonomy, relevance, a good learning experience,
stimulation, employability and value for money. Most graduates
remember the more ordered thought processes they learned, the
wonder of acquiring a body of knowledge, learning to question
received wisdom, and the motivation they acquired to learn through
the rest of their lives.
20. Within these broad trends, students
of different subjects report different experiences. For example,
the 2006 Economics Network Student Survey found that among the
most frequently mentioned aspects of the course were the quality
of staff and lecturers, variety of modules to study and future
job prospects.
"Some of the lecturers are really good,
they encourage you to learn and understand and are very good at
explaining difficult concepts". The answers are very similar
to the ones given in the 2004 survey. The quality of teaching
staff is given as a crucial factor in the students' continuing
satisfaction with the course—"Bad lecturers: should
be trained. I am not choosing some of the modules next year specifically
because of who is teaching them".
21. The student experience should be transformative,
so that they gain a new perspective on the work and acquire new
ways of analysing and thinking. Students taking part in the 2006
Economics Network Student Survey were asked how their course had
changed them: "For the better. I look at everything in the
world, and think economics. It changes the way you think, into
a more rigorous, analytical mindset" or "It made me
realise that there's a great deal of pleasure in actually understanding
something".
22. Universities and academics have a role
in helping students to engage with the material they are learning
so that we derive the outcomes students, academics and employers
seek. This way of thinking underlies the view of improving student
learning represented in the UK's National Student Survey and the
Australian Course Experience Questionnaire. These are not measures
of satisfaction so much as windows into how our designs for learning
are experienced by students. From these insights we assemble the
practical measures we may take to enhance the quality of their
experiences.
What do employers want from graduates?
23. Evidence presents a mixed and sometimes
confused picture—the short answer may be that employers
do not really know what they want from graduates, or that universities
do not see it as their role to provide "job ready" graduates.
24. The Academy's Subject Centre for History,
Classics and Archaeology expresses this neatly:
"I know what employers should want, but
that's different".
Subject Centres are very struck by the multiplicity
of employer interests; and that they are struck too by the extent
of self-employment pursued by the most enterprising graduates,
for example in Archaeology where a large proportion of graduates
start their own businesses.
25. The Academy's Centre for Education in
the Built Environment reports lively debates between employers,
academics and professional bodies about the perceived gap between
what employers expect of a new graduate and what they get. Some
university schools are responsive to the signals coming through
such discussions; others claim that their job is to educate, not
to train in skills. The Centre points out that curriculum change
is costly because of regulation by the professions, university
quality control and staff overload. It suggests that the government
could give a stronger lead in encouraging vocational subjects
to develop a more judicious blend of science and application,
education and specialist skills.
26. The Academy's Centre for Economics suggests
that employers look for graduates with the ability to analyse
and solve problems, either individually or in team, using generic
skills and, where appropriate, subject-specific skills. It identifies
a critical element as being able to move from the theoretical,
hypothetical world of stylised models and generalisations to the
real world of ill-defined issues and imperfect information. It
also identifies a common theme: the ability to communicate: presentational
skills, team-working skills and simple literacy are all vital.
27. The Academy Subject Centre for Medicine,
Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine points out that in its subjects
a university education is the only route to professional registration.
Graduates in these subjects are assured, through rigorous quality
monitoring by the professional and statutory bodies, as "fit
to practise". The Centre reports that employers would prefer
greater flexibility over commissioning educational places, a view
that is contested by many other groups as damagingly short-term.
Adequate planning of healthcare resourcing requires much greater
input than short term commissioning could achieve, since programmes
typically take five years to complete.
28. The Academy's experience from working
with universities and colleges across the UK is that institutions
have embraced the skills agenda, recognising the key part they
have to play both in preparing the technical and professional
workforce of the future, but also in terms of continuing professional
development. There are far more higher level vocational qualifications
now in universities of all types than in the past, including vocational
degrees, Foundation degrees, professional qualifications, HNC/Ds,
and postgraduate qualifications.
29. The Academy has stimulated considerable
engagement between its Subject Centres and Sector Skills Councils
in order to, for example, create vocational progression frameworks,
influence the shape of the new specialist diplomas at level 3
and of Foundation Degrees, accredit industry skills, find willing
employers to engage in HE curriculum design, and produce shared
resources for vocational learning, research industry competences
and employer expectations. This has been particularly successful
in the subject areas of Art, Design and Media, and in Construction.
We have embarked on a pump priming development project to test
out the implementation of the Sector Skills Agreements, through
the Subject Centres, in their academic departments. We are also
actively supporting entrepreneurial and enterprise education through
our close work with the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship,
and twenty-two of our twenty-four Subject Centres have been developing
methods and materials for this area of learning.
30. Recent policy documents such as the
Leitch Review tend to underplay the extent to which higher education
institutions are already engaging employers in curriculum design
and learning outcomes. The undergraduate curriculum frequently
includes placements, projects, skills and enterprise modules,
simulations and other work-related components to generate higher
level skills. Extra-curricular activities are also widely supported,
such as volunteering and work experience, for which credit or
additional certification is frequently available. The development
of Personal Development Planning (PDP), now a requirement for
all HEIs, has helped bring all these elements together to assist
individuals in their career planning.
31. Employers are increasingly seeking graduates
who are able to work in international and multi-cultural environments.
Internationalisation of the curriculum, which is being actively
supported by the Higher Education Academy, is an important component
of being able to provide graduates with the appropriate knowledge
and skills.
What should the government, and society more broadly,
want from higher education?
32. A strength of the UK higher education
system is its diversity. There is nothing wrong in Government
giving a steer to higher education, but it should be wary of direct
intervention and should give out consistent messages. There is
a case for directly incentivising learners to take up priority
subjects.
33. There is huge good will and professionalism
in higher education that needs to be nurtured. Cynicism needs
to be countered by recognising and respecting academic freedom
while engaging academics in a debate about the merits of innovation
and change. This is often done most effectively at subject level,
where there is most buy-in from academics.
34. There is no distinction between an enterprising
nation and its higher education sector. The nation quite reasonably
expects its educated people to be innovative and risk-taking.
These are precisely the characteristics of the academic process
in higher education: all our research is based upon the taking
of a risk which sometimes succeeds, receives peer acceptance,
is published and enters the mainstream of knowledge. By participating
in higher education, students are nurtured in a culture of rational
risk-taking.
35. The education system should deliver
education fit for purpose. That means having the right type of
student studying the right type of subject at an appropriate level
and proceeding through the higher education programme at an appropriate
pace. The mechanisms for delivering the differentiated university
missions envisaged in the 2003 White Paper need strengthening.
This requires looking at the impact of different funding strands.
Research funding is currently the prime motivator as teaching
funding is more of a given and is not significantly expanding.
The Higher Education Academy is engaged in debate within the sector,
and working with the Research Councils, to explore ways of bringing
research and teaching closer together.
36. There is no reason why the UK university
system should not deliver highly competent engineers, social workers
and teachers, in the same way as medical schools deliver junior
doctors ready to be let loose on patients. But not all courses
are or should be vocational. The system should also deliver the
kind of graduates that can replace the staff that teach them.
There are no cut and dried distinctions between vocational and
non-vocational courses across the piece. Traditional non-vocational
programmes produce students with skills to take on a wide variety
of jobs, and to pursue a flexible career in an uncertain future.
Just because a programme does not lead to admission to a particular
professional body does not mean that it does not equip students
with the skills necessary for them to flourish in the 21st century
environment. Traditional "vocational" programmes can
lead students into an academic career.
37. The Academy has recently established
a research network on widening participation, intended to improve
the relevance, quality and dissemination of widening participation
research to a wide audience. Our experience is that universities
and colleges are pursuing increased diversity with creativity,
vigour and commitment. The research network provides a forum for
the exchange of ideas and effective practice and a resource to
the whole sector. Please see our website for full details, www.heacademy.ac.uk/wprs.htm
38. A number of subjects report discipline-specific
issues arising from widening participation. The Academy Centre
for Bioscience suggests that with the change in university entry
to bring in a greater proportion of the cohort, universities need
a stimulus through all the various funding streams to improve
the quality of teaching, learning and the student experience.
There is a tension in some subjects between stretching the most
able students and spending time and effort on the less intellectually
able students and trying to keep down drop-out rates. In subjects
such as Biosciences the most able students are the lifeblood of
future discovery.
39. There is wide agreement among the Academy
Subject Centres and in institutions that higher education should
be distinctive from secondary education. The Academy's Subject
Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology cautions against
blurring the distinctions:
"Greater engagement will lead to a blurring
of the line between secondary education and higher education and
that will involve an end of, for example, academic judgement in
examination and assessment and an extension of more pragmatic
learning".
UNIVERSITY FUNDING
40. It will be important in deciding future
strategy to take into account the impact of funding on different
subject areas. A number of points have been raised by the Academy
Subject Centres:
1. The current funding model does not reflect
the costs of running expensive subjects in Engineering and Science
which require well resourced labs and computer equipment. University
funding for science departments should enable the provision of
the appropriate environments for carrying out internationally
competitive research and for the training of science graduates.
2. Funding is geared towards full-time, young,
undergraduate, on-campus students and does not encourage more
flexible operation. There is a case for basing a new system on
credit and the relative costs of certain kinds of provision. Student
support should favour part-time and full-time equally, provide
places for UK students to study at first degree and Masters level,
and provide basic infrastructure for teaching and research.
3. The great majority of students in higher
education are part-time in that they are students who also undertake
paid work—and many are workers who study.
4. The reliance on income from overseas students
provides a challenge to subjects and departments with a high proportion
of international students, especially when taught by international
graduate teaching assistants from a different country. The Academy
Economics Network reports that some research-intensive universities
make extensive use of graduate teaching assistants and that this
can lead to considerable problems for student learning.
5. The Academy Subject Centre for Geography,
Earth and Environmental Sciences expresses a concern that high
fees will make it difficult to recruit students to the traditional
"academic" disciplines.
6. The Academy Subject Centre on Medicine,
Dentistry and Veterinarian Medicine reports that raising fees
would place a potentially damaging conflict of interest on institutions
whereby the needs of the student may be seen to outweigh the needs
of the patient, their family and and carers, and society at large.
Robust arrangements to ensure that students who fail, for example,
"professionalism" (who may arguably justify why they
should be permitted to graduate, at potential cost to society
as a whole) can be adequately educated or dismissed from the course
would need to be in place. The RCP/BMA working party on Professionalism
(chaired by Dame Carol Black) reported in 2005 the "professional
qualities" sought in graduates and practising clinicians,
in the wake of the Shipman Inquiry. These recommendations are
complex and leave schools at risk of being unable to remove from
courses students who do not meet the standard.
7. The Academy Centre for Bioscience stresses
the importance of linking research to teaching. Students at the
undergraduate and postgraduate levels should experience appropriate
training which will involve not only receiving up to date knowledge
but also becoming accustomed to the research environment of the
subject area they have chosen. The university environment should
encourage both the learning of facts and also learning the methods
of science. Even for graduates who do not continue directly with
a career in science such backgrounds are extremely important for
engagement in society and democratic debate
41. The focus for the Higher Education Academy
in this debate is the student learning experience and how this
may be affected by the different funding methodologies and subsequent
behaviours of individuals and institutions as they pursue research
funding.
42. It is widely argued that the RAE has
a damaging impact on institutional and individual motivation to
improve the student learning experience. The recent debate on
what should replace the RAE from 2008 has deflected attention
from an important issue. Separate funding methods for research
and teaching lead to differences in behaviours and therefore to
different impacts on learning and the student experience.
43. If there is to be a positive relationship
between teaching and research, institutional and departmental
managers need to view these activities holistically. The current
HE climate of audit and league tables militates against this.
44. The Higher Education Academy will be
gathering evidence to inform future developments in funding methodologies
and:
1. Determine the relationships between research
and teaching and between research and the student learning experience.
2. Determine what impact the different approaches
to research assessment have in terms of behaviour and thus the
student learning experience.
3. Determine the effect of external drivers
which influence approaches to teaching and affect the student
learning experience.
4. Develop a model of working that facilitates
the management of research and teaching activities to ensure the
enhancement of the student learning experience.
STRUCTURE OF
HE
45. The distinctive characteristic of the
student experience in higher education is the opportunity it affords
to benefit from teaching that is informed by research and professional
practice.
46. The recently-established national professional
standards for teaching in higher education, developed by the Higher
Education Academy, require all academics to demonstrate how their
teaching is informed by research and professional practice.
47. The move to increase reliance on HE
in FE brings with it a need for investment in staff development
for college lecturers, which includes their having the time to
engage in this process.
THE BOLOGNA
PROCESS
48. The experience of the Higher Education
Academy is that:
— Awareness of Bologna varies between
disciplines, but overall appears to be low. There are exceptions,
for example staff engaged in medical and dental programmes appear
to be engaged in the process due to initiatives led by UUK, GuildHE,
Council of Deans and the professional bodies, together with thematic
networks such as DentEd and Medine.
— Academy Subject Centres in other
areas report that delay in implementation and providing guidance
is making the lecturers/administrators look incompetent or does
not make it easy to progress joint EU degree offering etc. In
all this seems to signal that the UK institutions focus more on
the Asian market than the EU market, but in the long run there
is a concern that this could lead to isolation from neighbours
closer by.
— Support for the process also varies,
with the strongest advocates citing the benefits of greater student
mobility and cautioning against letting other countries get too
far ahead in their planning. Those who are less sure most commonly
refer to the lack of alignment between the proposed Bologna framework
and current degree structures in some subjects.
49. A number of issues require further consideration.
JOINT DEGREES
50. There is an issue around "double"
and "joint" degrees. The joint degree in which a student
attends two universities but is registered for a degree of one
of the universities is normal and common practice. Over the last
few years as part of the Higher Education Academy's work with
the Welsh Assembly Government (related to developing HE links
across the Four Motor Regions of Europe plus Wales) we have had
regular requests, especially from Catalonia, for HEIs in Wales
to participate in "double" degrees in which students
do a single degree programme of, say, 360 credits in our terms
but get two separate degrees (one from the Welsh HEI and one from
the Catalonian HEI) for the same work. This issue requires further
consideration by the QAA.
CHANGES TO
DEGREE PATTERNS
51. The UK's most common degree patterns
do not entirely agree with the Bologna format in many subject
areas, in particular in England.
For example:
52. The Academy Centre for Medicine, Dentistry
and Veterinary Medicine highlights a particular issue for consideration
in relation to these subjects, which typically follow five year
programmes. These programmes are affected by a need to define
programmes in terms of degree/Masters which would require awarding
of "degree" status to students who were half way through
their courses. A key implication of Bologna may require medical,
dental and veterinary programmes to move to "graduate entry"
only, similar to the US. A major concern with this is the increased
cost (it would take seven years higher education for a graduate
rather than the current five) and how to classify the medical
graduate entry programme.
53. The Academy Subject Centre for Bioscience
reports that the funding model for postgraduate studies would
need to change significantly in order to accommodate a Bologna-type
arrangement. At present the majority of home based PhD students
in the Biosciences are funded by Government grants, but MSc courses
have on the whole not been funded to any great extent. At present
most students enter postgraduate study for PhD immediately after
achieving their BSc, and for which they increasingly have to pay
and get into debt. There would be a considerable disincentive
if they had to pay further for a two-year MSc course before commencing
the PhD. Some universities and courses already offer an MSc qualification
after four years of undergraduate study. The Bologna Process would
require a further year. The fundamental question is whether Government
would wish to fund 5 years of postgraduate study rather than the
present three years, in order to produce the same number of PhD
graduates.
54. The Academy Subject Centre on Materials
reports low awareness in that area. The Bologna model would require
a change in the structure of programmes in these subjects.
55. The Academy Subject Centre for Engineering
recognises as an advantage of Bologna the fact that the recognition
of equality of educational qualifications through a European framework
will enable graduates to operate more easily in a global market.
It reports that awareness in the discipline is low, apart from
a general unease that it will kill off the established MEng programme.
This currently has 480 UK credits with 120 at Masters level. This
does not fit with the proposed framework where a Masters needs
180-240 credits. The MEng is the "gold standard" qualification
for the educational base for those wishing to progress to chartered
engineer status. It is selective with the majority of students
having to achieve at least 2:1 standard before proceeding to the
second two years. Employers like the graduates from the MEng.
The MEng graduate achieves the learning outcomes for Masters level
but not the number of Bologna credits. The Subject Centre cautions
against returning to a model that requires time serving as the
basis of an award.
56. The proximity of 2010 requires the UK
to give firm guidance on what universities need to be doing for
compliance. Should they continue with the MEng as it stands or
is it necessary to raise the number of credits. There does not
appear to be any organisation willing to give this guidance at
the moment and this will lead to fragmentation of provision across
the UK.. The organisations involved include the Engineering Council,
QAA. UUK and DfES. Where will the definitive decisions come from?
57. The Centre for the Built Environment
comments on architectural education. The Bologna Declaration foresees
that the Masters qualification will become the principal professionally
recognised qualification in Europe. This would bring the UK into
line with other parts of the world: Masters qualifications now
predominate in the USA; all ten professional architecture programmes
in Canada are Masters; Australia and New Zealand are committed
to restructuring architecture courses into two-tier professional
Masters by 2009; and there is a preference for Masters professional
qualifications in Asia, where Hong Kong, Singapore and leading
Chinese programmes are moving in the same direction.
58. There is consensus world-wide that architectural
education should be of five years duration (see UIA/UNESCO Charter
for Architectural Education, June 1996). In the UK where central
funding generally precludes support at Masters level, architectural
education unhelpfully comprises two undergraduate degrees, typically
a three year BA or BSc (Hons), followed by a BArch, Diploma of
Architecture or Graduate Diploma (usually separated by at least
a year spent in professional experience). This lack of a Masters
degree for graduates in architecture has always been seen as an
anomaly, undervaluing the exit qualification internationally and
disadvantaging those needing a higher qualification for career
advancement (eg those wishing to undertake research or enter a
career in higher education).
59. A Masters Exit award for UK architecture
courses would be generally welcomed by the sector bringing it
into line with equivalent professional degrees in equivalent countries.
It is clear that Masters professional education is emerging as
a common international standard. It would also make UK architecture
courses even more attractive to full fee-paying overseas students.
60. If Masters awards in architectural education
come into being in the UK, the sector would wish to argue vigorously
for the present five year funding regime to remain, given the
international acceptance that a professional degree in architecture
needs to be at least five years long. There is some precedent
for this in the engineering sector with the emergence of the MEng.
If funding in the architecture sector is limited to a three or
four year undergraduate degree it is likely to lead to a reduction
in the number of professional courses in architecture and a consequent
reduction in the number of architecture students qualifying and
registering as architects. This would not be in the best interests
of the national economy. It could lead to an undersupply of architects
and a reliance on qualified personnel from overseas.
STUDENT MOBILITY
61. Student mobility is not a priority in
all subject areas. The Academy Centre for Bioscience reports that
mobility within Europe is not valued greatly by UK students, even
though it might be beneficial in terms of developing students'
maturity and language skills (and therefore, employability). Typically
in Bioscience a range of subjects is taught and students have
wide choices building up to degrees with a "flavour"
that suits their future career aspirations. Few British students
wish to move around between European universities, and in terms
of future career development, Bioscience postgraduates are just
as likely to go to the USA for a period of post-doctoral research
as to Europe.
QUALITY
62. There are concerns about quality in
some subject areas. The main implication is that graduates elsewhere
in Europe from dental and veterinary programmes can enter and
work in the UK with relatively little experience—the professional
bodies in the UK demand significant hours of supervised training,
they do not have similar influence elsewhere in Europe. Medicine
has a process of "provisional registration" which safeguards
patients in medicine.
CONCLUSION
63. The Committee has undertaken a wide-ranging
inquiry into Higher Education. It will be important to ensure
that the impact on the student experience informs its deliberations
and recommendations.
December 2006
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