Memorandum 88
Submission from Westminster College, Cambridge
SUMMARY
From a United Reformed Church theological college
in Cambridge, working with partners in other churches and faith
traditions, comes a plea that theology and theology for ministry
courses should be exempt from the ELQ cuts. We come from a church
tradition which has, in the past, been excluded from the universities
and which it took powerful campaigning nonconformists to open
up for us. From that experience comes a plea that training for
ministry within the church does not have to revert to a narrow
base, but can remain firmly within the public sphere. The ELQ
cuts, if implemented, would have a dramatic impact on our work
and would set back by a long way the progress we have made in
providing education for ministry that is ecumenical, academically
credible and professionally excellent.
ABOUT US
1. Westminster College is a college of the
United Reformed Church, and is part of the Cambridge Theological
Federation that has seven full member institutions and four associate
member institutions providing training for ministry within most
of the main-stream churches in England. Within the whole Federation
there are about 450 students. We are privileged to work alongside
Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, Orthodox and others.
2. We are also proud, at Westminster, to
be able to educate our future ministers through study at two universities,
Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin. We draw on our own highly professional
staff and also on the staff at the Cambridge University Divinity
Faculty to provide training that is professional, thorough and
tested beyond a solely church setting. We rejoice in providing
education for public ministry and service to the community which
is validated and assessed in ways that are publicly measurable
and accountable. Westminster College represents part of the tradition
known as "Nonconformist", those who were once excluded
from our universities by virtue of being outside the Church of
England. We value beyond measure the privilege of access to university
study and believe deeply that those who train for ministry in
the church should have such access and take full advantage of
it.
3. Almost all our students are studying
for ministry on degree programmes. About 80% of them come with
a first degree already, usually in a subject other than theology.
IMPACT OF
FUNDING CHANGES
4. The proposed funding changes will have
a devastating effect on our life and on our ability to train people
for the ministry of our churches with the rigour which we hold
dear and which our society now demands and rightly expects.
5. The removal of HEFCE funding for students
who already have a first degree will, for example, more than double
the course fee payable to Cambridge University, from £3,070
per head to a figure likely to be between £6,300 and £9,000.
A similar impact would be made for a student studying through
Anglia Ruskin. The effect of this would certainly be to reduce
student numbers, even to a level that would make some of the courses
we presently offer unviable. This would have an impact not only
on ministerial training, but on the university faculties with
which we presently work to provide it.
FURTHER ARGUMENTS
6. We are not confident that the implications
of these cuts have been thought through. We applaud the Government's
aim to give a wider range of people access to higher education,
but believe that this particular strategy will not achieve that
aim, and certainly not without drastic, and unforeseen, consequences
elsewhere.
7. We believe that ministers in our churches
are servants of the community, not only of the Church, and that
it is vital that they be well educated and resourced. Indeed,
we would say that it is often ministers, in local churches and
communities, who have inspired and encouraged people towards higher
education! They have themselves often been an access route for
those who could not have imagined themselves studying for a university
degree.
8. The funding provision that exists now
gives the churches the opportunity to train their ministers in
the public space—and not in narrow faith-based communities
only. The Government has shown itself aware of the dangers of
faith communities becoming insular and turning inward. We want
to encourage the future ministers of our churches to belong fully
to the society in which they minister and to face its challenges
and questions—this is what happens when preparation for
ministry includes taking a publicly validated degree.
RECOMMENDATION
9. We recommend that theology and theology
for ministry courses be added to those exempted from the ELQ cuts.
This will have a modest impact of Government funds, but would
enable all the churches to continue to provide the best possible
training for their ministers.
January 2008
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