Memorandum submitted by the National Institute
of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE)
SUMMARY
The future of higher education (HE) will to
a large measure depend on an equitable, accessible and flexible
culture of lifelong learning. For it to be sustainable, fit for
purpose and meet social, economic and individual needs HE must
address these priorities.
ADULT
We welcome Leitch's proposal to modify the HE
target. The current policy focus on young participation obscures
the vital needs of adults in higher education. Demographic trends
mean new entrants to the labour market can only provide one third
of future high-skill jobs; career patterns demand regular upskilling
and retraining; family, communities, health and personal fulfilment
all benefit from lifelong higher education.
PART TIME
Over 40% of UK higher education students are
part time, but if study is less than 50% of full time (even though
the average level of study is about 35% of full time) they are
ineligible for financial support, and more likely to suffer from
age discrimination. Only a minority are funded by employers.
A SINGLE POST-COMPULSORY
SECTOR?
HE participation targets will only be achieved
by better F/HE articulation. A new single post-compulsory sector
could be the most effective step to achieve the economic and social
goals of higher education for the 21st century.
HE IN FE
FE colleges deliver 11% of HE. This is critical
to widening participation, employer engagement and work-based
routes. The familiar local college is a powerful agent for social
inclusion for non-traditional learners. Development of HE in FE
is vital, including Colleges awarding Foundation Degrees.
COMMUNITY
Knowledge transfer and business reach-out are
an essential aspect of the HE mission, but tend to ignore engagement
of the local community as partners in development and renewal
through learning and research. This builds capacity for active
citizenship, regeneration and community development.
EQUITY
Higher Education will continue to develop as
a market driven sector. This has advantages for individuals and
for society as a whole. Policy interventions will be necessary
to ensure equity for learners who cannot afford market prices,
socially desirable provision, and disciplines necessary to the
national interest.
INTRODUCTION
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
(NIACE) is an independent non-governmental organisation and charity.
Its corporate and individual members come from a range of places
where adults learn: in further education colleges and local community
settings; in universities, workplaces and prisons as well as in
their homes through the media and information technology. NIACE's
work is supported by a wide range of bodies including the DfES
(with which it has a formal voluntary sector compact) and other
departments of state, by the Local Government Association and
by the Learning and Skills Council. The ends to which NIACE activities
are directed can be summarised as being to secure more, different
and better opportunities for adult learners, especially those
who benefited least from their initial education.
NIACE welcomes the opportunity to present views
to the Select Committee on the future sustainability of the higher
education sector. We share the Select Committee's interest in
the future development of higher education.
Our submission reflects NIACE's particular concern
and expertise in adults in a lifelong learning context and in
those learners who continue to be hard to reach and who remain
under represented/and/or excluded from learning. Our presiding
concern is the learner and therefore we argue for a genuinely
learner-centred higher education, which is not only equitable
for a lifelong and diverse constituency of learners but draws
on the strengths such diversity can bring to the sector. We also
base our submission on the fact that a large proportion of higher
education students are over the age of 21, and over 40% are part
time.
THE PRINCIPLES
OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
NIACE believes that the aims of higher education
as set out by Dearing [Higher Education in the Learning Society,
(1997) 1.4] still apply as guiding principles. According to
Dearing higher education must:
— Encourage and enable all students—whether
they demonstrate the highest intellectual potential or whether
they have struggled to reach the threshold of higher education—to
achieve beyond their expectations;
— Safeguard the rigour of its awards,
ensuring that UK qualifications meet the needs of UK students
and have standing throughout the world;
— Be at the leading edge of world practice
in effective teaching and learning; undertake research that matches
the best in the world and make its benefits available to the nation;
— Ensure that its support for regional
and local communities is at least comparable to that provided
by higher education in competitor nations;
— Sustain a culture which demands disciplined
thinking, encourages curiosity, challenges existing ideas and
generates new ones;
— Be part of the conscience of a democratic
society, founded on respect for the rights of the individual and
the responsibilities of the individual to society as a whole;
and
— Be explicit and clear about how it
goes about its business, be accountable to students and to society
and seek continuously to improve it own performance;
NIACE believes that these guiding principles
hold good for the twenty-first century, though in a context of
an increasing pace of change in the number and diversity of higher
education providers, the range of programmes and activities, and
the move to a mass system of over 40% participation in 2006.
These changes have been accompanied by large
changes in the structure and funding of the HE sector, and by
the renewed vigour of the lifelong learning culture. Funding changes
include increasing "third stream" income from commercial
spin-out and knowledge transfer, and from 2006 the introduction
of variable tuition fees; both of these developments reduce the
dependence of the sector on the public purse, and thus the leverage
of the State on the sector.
Two related but somewhat conflicting trends
are emerging in higher education. One is that as global influences
increase, and as State funding proportionately reduces, the sector
becomes progressively market driven. The other trend is towards
government intervention to protect and support certain aspects
of the sector:
— Widening participation and social
inclusion to widen and "deepen" participation to include
constituencies of learners previously under represented in HE;
— Certain discipline areas which for
national reasons are deemed at risk and essential (for example
physics, mathematics) subjects; and
— Certain HE activities which are deemed
for the public good (for example community provision).
NIACE accepts that the market will play an increasing
part in HE in the future; this is visible in worldwide trends,
and in the increasing vocational character of HE. Within this
future vision, however, we argue that policy interventions need
to be maintained and strengthened in the interests of both producing
an appropriately skilled workforce which reflects projections
of both individual and economic need and the changing demographic
profile, and of equity, social cohesion, equality of opportunity,
citizenship, and lifelong learning for all.
ADULTS IN
HIGHER EDUCATION
A large proportion of learners in higher education
are over the age of 21:
Age distribution of first-year UK-domiciled
undergraduates, by mode of study, United Kingdom, 2003-04
|
| First degree
| Other undergraduates
|
| Total
| Full-time | Part-time
| Total | Full-time
| Part-time |
| (%)
| (%) | (%)
| (%) | (%) |
(%) |
|
| 18 and under | 40.7
| 48.1 | 1.5
| 6.1 | 21.6 | 2.6
|
| 19 years | 18.8
| 22.0 | 1.8
| 3.8 | 14.4 | 1.4
|
| 20 years | 6.6
| 7.4 | 2.6
| 2.8 | 8.1 | 1.6
|
| 21—24 | 11.8
| 11.0 | 16.2
| 11.7 | 17.7 | 10.4
|
| 25—29 | 6.3
| 4.1 | 17.5
| 13.1 | 10.7 | 13.6
|
| 30 and over | 15.8
| 7.4 | 60.4
| 62.5 | 27.5 | 70.3
|
|
(McGivney V, Adult learning at a glance—the context,
facts and figures, NIACE, 2006).
The commitment to 50% participation by the 18-30 age cohort
by 2010, and the supporting policy initiatives such as Aimhigher,
though excellent in themselves, have somewhat obscured the adult
constituency—especially those over 30. A healthy sustainable
higher education within a lifelong learning culture will make
an equitable offer to learners of all ages, and needs to respect
certain characteristics of adults, including older adults. The
consequence will be to the benefit of the individual, the economy
and to society as a whole. For these reasons we welcome Leitch's
recommended re-shaping of the HE PSA target.
Adult entry to higher education will be for various reasons
offer:
— A transformative experience:
first experience of HE as returners to education after a perhaps
long break. A majority of such learners has traditionally been
women with relatively low educational qualifications who now for
various reasons (for example grown-up children) are ready to further
their education and enter the workforce;
— Retraining:
occasioned by a major life change, for example redundancy, change
of personal career direction;
— Personal development:
for example newly-retired people seeking higher education again
for a range of motives, from a personal passion for a subject
to the desire to work for the community or a national body as
a volunteer; and
— An adult student experience:
higher education too often defaults (albeit unintentionally) to
an assumption of a young, A level entrant studying full time for
a degree. This is disadvantageous to the interests of both the
State and the individual.
FOR THE
NATIONAL INTEREST:
Higher education needs to be not only fully accessible, but
positively to attract adults into degree-level study. The evidence
from demographic trends is overwhelming—not only the significant
and progressive decrease in the 18-year-old cohort from 2011,
but the fact that young entrants to the national workforce can
only provide one third of the net increase in jobs by 2010 (Alan
Tuckett, Demography and Older Learners, NIACE 2005). To
this should be added the wider benefits to society of an educated
adult population in terms of:
— Family—young people are more likely to aspire
to higher education if their parents are graduates;
— Community—graduates are more likely to work
or volunteer;
— Health—learning reduces demands on health
services; and
— Personal fulfilment—study helps to build
happier lives.
FOR ADULT
LEARNERS:
Higher education needs to be:
— Local —adult students are likely to be home-based
for personal reasons. There needs to be a fair curriculum offer
accessible to all within reasonable travel distances (remote delivery
by e-learning will help but not be sufficient);
— Flexible—learning patterns will be very
varied and often governed by other factors such as work (including
shift work), and periodic re-entry to HE throughout a career;
— Supported—by adult-friendly services (such
as child care, out of hours resources, information advice and
guidance, and specific support for learners who have perhaps been
out of the education system for a number of years;
— Financially equitable—with no disadvantage
in fees and financial support owing to age or mode of study (eg
part time);
— Capable of recognising the direct value of previous
qualifications and experience through robust and transferable
credit schemes including Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning
(APEL);
— Inclusive—able to help potential entrants
and on-course students to minimise the barriers to learning and
successful completion (such as cost, lack of self esteem, support,
inflexibility, lack of disability support); and
— Capable of valuing the professional and personal
life experience of adult students as contributions to the collective
student experience and to the academic culture, as well as to
their communities, families and their own personal enrichment
and development. We stress this as most important—we are
not advocating a "deficit model" in which adults are
"allowed for" but a true lifelong learning culture in
higher education.
NIACE recommends that the higher education system should
give equal and equitable priority to learners at all stages in
their lifecourse.
PART TIME
HIGHER EDUCATION.
Over 40% of UK higher education students are part time; indeed
it could be argued that all students are now part time, as most
full time students work for substantial parts of the time to support
their studies.
"Part time" as a category embraces a very much
wider range of learning and learners than "full time".
Part time can range:
— From a few credits per year to almost full time;
as the recent UUK report says:
"Students can study at their own pace, which means that
some study at very low intensity over a long period of time whilst
others study at nearly full-time levels." (Part-time students
in higher education—supporting higher-level skills and lifelong
learning, UUK, 2006);
— From very low-cost (for example programmes for
community or social inclusion) to high cost professional development;
and
— From on campus to off campus and remote delivery,
including distance and electronic learning.
Furthermore, part time study is a vital plank in widening
participation and social inclusion, since for many adults in non-traditional
social groups this is the only option. Such students are likely
to have serious need for effective support.
The extreme variety of part time study makes it very difficult
to generalise or to recommend a regulatory framework which is
fair to all. Nevertheless the system is currently disadvantageous
to many part time students for the following reasons:
— Intensity of study
Although financial support has improved substantially, part time
learners are ineligible for support if study is below 50%, even
though the average level of study is about 35%;
— Part-time learners are not eligible for loans,
even though the financial burden of fees is now substantial and
can be prohibitive;
— Age discrimination proportionately hits part time
learners as many more are likely to be in the over-54 age category;
and
— Some part time students are fully or part funded
by employers; this is however a minority (at most 35%).
NIACE believes that in the medium to long term the distinction
between part and full time modes of study should be abandoned
in favour of a structure which fairly reflects the reality of
study, and allows for the already wide range of intensity of study
within these distinctions. This should not, however, take the
form of "bringing part time into line with full time"
but a new categorisation purpose-built for all. Again as the UUK
report says:
"Part-time undergraduate study cannot be seen as an adjunct
to full-time study or as an alternative. For many part-time students
the alternative would not be full-time study but not studying
at all."
NIACE RECOMMENDS
1. That in the short term (up to five years) the higher
education system should be "proofed" against discrimination
or disadvantage to part time learners in all areas including fees,
funding, and financial and other support;
2. In the medium to long term "full time" and
"part time" modes be replaced by a new structure (perhaps
based on credit) capable of reflecting a wide range of intensity
of study.
A NEW "TERTIARY"
SINGLE POST
COMPULSORY SECTOR?
Higher education in England is bedevilled by two unhelpful
"divides":
— "Academic"/"vocational"
If participation in higher education is to be genuinely widened
and more socially inclusive then these divides have to be overcome.
Only 40% progress to higher education from vocational routes as
opposed to 90% by the A level "academic" pathway.
Howard Newby, in the 2003 Colin Bell Memorial Lecture ("Doing
Widening Participation: Social inequality and access to higher
education.") spoke of the need for "vocational"
and "academic" to be seen not as a divide but a continuum;
in Scotland and in many other countries a single post-school "tertiary"
system has been adopted for seamless post-16 provision especially
F/HE.
Many existing features of the HE system already veer towards
such a system. The Government higher education participation targets
will only be achieved by better F/HE articulation. The additional
funded numbers to support the targets are mostly for Foundation
degrees, located in FE colleges, yet funded by HEFCE.
A new "tertiary" system could enable greatly improved
progression for vocational and non-traditional learners of all
ages, and especially enhance the success of:
The new Lifelong Learning Networks (HEFCE/LSC) initiative
would especially benefit from a tertiary system, having comprehensive
and "seamless" post-16 vocational progression at its
heart.
NIACE recommends that serious consideration be given to a
wholly new concept of a single post-compulsory sector, with appropriate
statutory and funding measures, as the single most effective step
to achieve the economic and social goals of higher education for
the 21st century.
HIGHER EDUCATION
IN FURTHER
EDUCATION
11% of higher education is delivered in further education
colleges (FECs). 50% of Foundation Degree (FD) students are studying
at FECs; 80% of FDs are delivered by FECs (Foundation Degree Forward,
2006). FDs engage employers and employees and offer a genuine
work-based route for non-traditional learners, while many other
HE programmes also operate in FE colleges.
For vocational and non-traditional learners the local FE
college provides a familiar and non-intimidating environment,
and thus a powerful agent for achieving widening participation
and social inclusion. As indicated in the FE White Paper (Raising
Skills, Improving Life Chances, 2006):
"FE is particularly effective in providing HE for learners
from more disadvantaged groups, backgrounds and communities. Many
FE colleges offer flexible, local opportunities which make HE
accessible to people who might otherwise face significant barriers
to participation." (2.42)
The HE in FE learner profile is both distinct and diverse,
with a high proportion of part time and older learners:
"More than 50% of learners are part-time, compared with
around 35% of higher education students as a whole. The student
group tends to be older."
(Bill Rammell, speech to AOC/HEFCE conference on HE delivery in
FE Colleges, 2006).
For all these reasons NIACE strongly supports the development
of HE in FE, welcomes the proposal in the Queen's Speech for FE
Colleges to have powers to award their own degrees and recommends
that funding and structural models should enable growth and that
this important aspect of higher education be fully recognised
within, for example, the evolving context of Lifelong Learning
networks.
COMMUNITY
Community engagement by higher education institutions has
suffered in recent years from a low priority. Funding initiatives
aimed at "community" have tended to interpret "community"
as "business community" and focus on knowledge transfer
and business reach-out in the pursuit of "third stream"
income, or to fund, for example, student volunteering schemes
(for example the Active Community Fund). There is also a strong
tradition of interpreting "community contribution" as
public lectures, concerts, and the economic impact of large numbers
of students on the retail and housing local economy.
Important though these aspects are, they ignore an essential
aspect of genuine university engagement in the local community
as active partner in development, renewal, community learning
and community-based research.
Excellent examples of this engagement are to be found elsewhere,
for example in the United States. The benefits for community and
consequently for higher education are substantial.
There is therefore an urgent need for establishing partnerships
between HEIs (including research universities) and their local
and regional communities. This will also involve working with
regional organisations such as Regional Development Agencies and
include the provision of a range of learning activities to enable
informal, non-formal and formal learning and capacity- building
programmes for active citizenship and effective involvement in
regeneration and community development. It is important for lifelong
learning to be seen as central to the public engagement strategies
of higher education in the UK.
NIACE recommends that there should be specific policy interventions
to enhance community engagement by all higher education providers.
AN EQUITABLE
HIGHER EDUCATION:
POLICY INTERVENTION
AND FUNDING
NIACE acknowledges that higher education will continue to
move progressively to a market driven sector. There are advantages
as well as inevitability in this process, for individuals and
for society as a whole. But within this market future, policy
interventions will be necessary to ensure equity for a range of
cohorts of learners and disciplines:
— Individuals and social groups who cannot afford
market prices for higher education;
— Socially desirable provision such as community
engagement; and
— Subject disciplines (as in the current case of
Physics) essential for the public, economic or other interest.
December 2006
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