The Future of Higher Education

Written evidence from Skillset

1. This submission is from Skillset, the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for Creative Media which comprises TV, film, radio, interactive media, animation, computer games, facilities, photo imaging, publishing, advertising and fashion and textiles.

2. Skillset welcomes the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee inquiry into the future of higher education and the opportunity it presents for Skillset to represent the needs of students, higher education institutions and employers within the creative industries.

Summary

3. The key points that Skillset wishes to bring to the Committee’s attention are:

Ø Funding should be made available for the small selection of high cost courses within the creative industries where delivery costs exceed tuition fees, and which meet the high standards that industry requires. In this submission we elaborate on the social and economic reasons for such a proposal;

Ø Alternative models of postgraduate study, and in particular taught masters degrees, should be considered in order to counteract the impact higher graduate contributions could have on uptake in postgraduate study;

Ø Where a course is vocational in nature, the Key Information Set (KIS – defined by HEFCE) should include sector-specific details about the destinations of students in the first year after completing their course;

Ø Where an industry is not represented by a professional body, the relevant Sector Skills Council’s accreditation system should have the same status as a professional body on the KIS;

Ø Alternative, more cost-effective methods of undergraduate study (like structured internships) should be considered to counteract the impact increased tuition fees could have on potential students from more economically challenged backgrounds;

Ø Higher education and industry should work together more closely in order to ensure that higher education institutions are delivering courses that are relevant to the needs of the industry;

Ø Sector Skills Councils are and should continue to be an important broker between the higher education sector and industry in order to articulate the needs of employers to Universities, broker relationships between the two and facilitate co-investment;

Ø There should be ongoing support for the Skillset Academy network and accredited courses, with Skillset continuing to play a coordinating role on strategic network development.

Funding

4. Skillset acknowledge the recommendations in the Browne Review that increased private contributions and more targeted public investment will ‘support high quality provision and allow the sector to grow to meet qualified demand.’ However, Skillset believes that there are two areas that urgently need to be addressed in order to ensure that the quality of courses within the creative industries is not impeded.

5. Firstly, the Creative Industries is one of the areas in which the UK can claim to be world-leading. Over a million people work in the UK’s creative industries, with a further 800,000 employed in creative occupations in businesses outside the creative sector. The sector accounts for more than seven per cent of UK GDP and has shown consistent, above average growth for more than a decade. UK universities have played a critical role in this through the nurturing of creative talent, as evidenced in the Universities UK’s Creating Prosperity report, which outlines the importance of higher education to the future of the UK’s Creative Economy. The sector as a whole is characterised by high levels of Level 4 and above qualifications. Two thirds (60%) of workers in the creative media sector have degrees and many in media-related subjects. This compares with just 36% of adults who hold Level 4 qualifications or above across the whole UK workforce. The industry needs and will continue to need high calibre graduates in order to maintain its competitive edge. However, many creative subjects, and in particular Skillset-accredited courses, are at the expensive end of the current banding system due to the need for space and facilities. In these cases, the actual cost of running the course exceeds the tuition fees payable and there may be cases where it is not possible for HEIs to support them without some additional external funding. As described below in paragraph 14, Skillset-accredited courses are comparatively few in number and the Skillset approval process allows for that differentiation and targeted funding. It also targets employers’ support to the courses and institutions where they could see best return on their investment.

6. The Browne Review acknowledges that there is a ‘strong case for additional and targeted investment by the public in certain courses’, and that these may be courses that ‘deliver significant social returns.’ However, it also identifies the categories that these courses may fall in to – science and technology subjects, clinical medicine, nursing and other healthcare degrees. Skillset therefore recommends that the list of the subjects that ‘deliver significant social returns’ is expanded to include the creative industries, particularly in light of the creative industries’ contribution to the UK’s economic growth and global competitiveness as described above.

7. Skillset’s fear is that without this funding, higher education institutions will not be able to offer these more expensive courses at the high standards that industry requires and that the very education base needed for a growing part of the economy will be lost, together with the creative media industries’ confidence and support in the higher education system and their appetite to co-invest and build on the strong foundations that have been established. Skillset believes that it is critical that additional funding is made available for these courses at least during the transitional period to ensure that universities are able to continue to offer them and if necessary have time to develop alternative means of funding.

8. Secondly, Skillset is concerned about the impact that higher graduate contributions could have on recruitment for full-time postgraduate study and welcomes David Willetts’s decision to ask Professor Sir Adrian Smith to reconvene his review panel, which produced a comprehensive report on postgraduate study in March of last year, to consider this issue.

9. Skillset would like to put forward an alternative model of delivery that it has designed and launched in collaboration with industry and Skillset Media Academies across England – Build Your Own MA. This programme enables those that are already working within the industry to get the training they need whilst keeping up with existing work commitments. It consists of a series of short courses that carry postgraduate credits and can be taken with a wide selection of other courses to achieve a recognised qualification, ranging from a Postgraduate Certificate to an MA in Professional Media Practice. All participating Skillset Media Academies recognise each others’ credits for their awards, thus enabling students to benefit from specialism s across the network. The scheme will also see the development of bespoke professional development programmes that follow the same format, such as the Creative Media Leadership Award.

Information for students

10. Skillset welcomes the proposed introduction of the Key Information Set (KIS) as a means of providing students with clear, accessible information about the courses they may wish to study in a standardised manner. However, Skillset believes that there are two essential pieces of information that have been omitted from the KIS.

11. Firstly, whilst the KIS currently provides the destinations of students in the first year after completing their course (including employment and further study) and the proportion of students in a full-time professional or managerial job in the first year after completing the course, there is currently no sector-specific relevance to these statistics. Skillset therefore recommends that this is added as an additional category. This information will be particularly useful for students considering vocational courses and will help them to identify those courses that are highly esteemed by the industry in which they wish to pursue a career. Where a course is not vocational in nature, for example English or History, this could be indicated by ‘not applicable’ on the KIS.

12. Secondly, the KIS currently provides details of ‘Professional bodies which recognise this course’ and the recommendations from the Professional Accreditation Working Group include that where courses are not accredited by professional bodies, the field should be filled with text reading ‘This course is not accredited by a professional body.’ Skillset believes it is essential that where an industry is not represented by a professional body that the relevant Sector Skills Council’s accreditation system has the same status as a professional body. Otherwise, students wishing to pursue a career within these sectors will be at a considerable disadvantage when it comes to evaluating the varying standards and different intentions of the numerous courses that are available to them.

13. Skillset is licensed by the government to represent the voice of the creative media industries which are now a major contributor to the UK economy. There is no professional body in this area. Skillset, in collaboration with industry and the higher education sector, has developed a robust, transparent process to accredit courses in subjects across these industries including computer games, animation, film production and digital media. The accreditation criteria and assessment process seeks evidence of sector destinations, links with industry, practical content, high-quality resources and professional practice. The process is transparent and flexible, recognising course differences and measuring industry relevance. This accreditation not only signposts to students courses that are industry approved, but also enables employers to target and focus resources on the courses that are relevant. All efforts are made to ensure that it does not add extra assessment burden to higher education institutions or students and that it links to other non sector-specific quality assurance arrangements.

14. Of the 12,400 courses relevant to the creative media industries available in England, Skillset has accredited 243 courses. All of these courses have been through a rigorous selection process conducted by professionals working within the industry and senior higher education staff. They are widely recognised as those that will best prepare students for work in the industry and those that have the strongest links with industry. To illustrate this point, Skillset has been systematically tracking students as they leave courses and the first student cohort shows that almost a third (33.8%) of graduates from Skillset-accredited courses find employment in creative media industries six months after graduating compared to the 10% of their counterparts from non-accredited subjects.

15. Skillset recognises that many theory-based subjects would not be eligible to apply for this accreditation and the subject accreditation titles will clearly differentiate the different subjects and subject matter, for example production courses as distinct from courses such as film studies. The latter would not carry the ‘This course is not accredited by a professional body’ line as they would not be eligible.

16. Finally, Skillset understands that the information available to students should be credible and evidence-based and should avoid duplication and conflicting/overlapping messages. Skillset acknowledge that there are, across all sectors, many accrediting bodies and arrangements and recommends that only the accreditation arrangements available through professional bodies or licensed SSCs be included in the KIS.

Diversity

17. Skillset is concerned about the impact increased tuition fees could have on potential students from more economically challenged backgrounds. Although Skillset welcomes proposals that Universities wanting to charge more than £6,000 would have to undertake measures, such as offering bursaries and outreach programmes, to encourage students from poorer backgrounds to apply, Skillset believes that alternative, more cost-effective methods of course delivery should also be explored.

18. Skillset is currently developing a proposal for a 2 Year Honours Degree Internship Programme. This fast-track, work-based course will combine the academic rigour of a degree programme with the industry relevance of an internship. Each year of study would consist of 2 x 10 week terms from October to Easter during which the student would achieve 100 credits, followed by an 18 week internship during which the student would achieve 80 credits. At the end of Year 2, if the student has achieved 360 credits, an honours degree would be awarded. The key benefits are that students will leave university with less student debt as they would only have to pay two years of the student fee, and they will also have developed excellent work-based professional skills and substantial industry contacts and thus be better placed to move straight in to jobs. Additionally, Skillset would encourage employers to provide a bursary for the student throughout the internship. Universities will not lose out as the period of teaching will all fall within the traditional academic term timeframe and employers will benefit from industry-ready graduates.

Brokerage

19. The recent policy regarding fees and the new funding arrangements of the Higher Education system will operate as a market system to attract investment and student numbers. Whilst recognising that degrees are general academic programmes, many students (and their parents) will prefer to invest their money in courses they believe will lead to better employment opportunities. Employers, meanwhile, are looking for educated individuals with high level skills. It is therefore essential that higher education and industry work together more closely in order to ensure that higher education institutions are delivering courses that are relevant to the needs of the industry. However, the structure of the creative industries - as sectors consisting of a large proportion of small businesses - makes this engagement difficult on both sides. Cost and time barriers are also an issue. Skillset therefore believes that it is critical that Sector Skills Councils are able to continue to act as a broker between the higher education sector and industry in order to articulate the needs of employers to Universities, broker relationships between the two and facilitate co-investment.

20. Skillset already plays an active role on this front. There are many hundreds of degrees aimed at the creative and digital sectors, but many are not delivering the content needed by the industry. With the backing of the creative media sector, over the last five years, Skillset has brokered a kitemarking and accreditation system to signpost those courses in Higher Education that meet industry needs, as well as meeting broader educational objectives. Skillset has also created a network of Skillset Film and Media Academies. Skillset has launched a Pick the Tick Campaign to signpost students to those courses that have industry approval, and employers to those courses that they should target and focus resources on. As highlighted in paragraph 14 these courses are already generating impressive results.

21. Skillset has worked to strengthen the Academy network further by submitting bids to various funding bodies on behalf of the network for the further development of new courses and initiatives. For example, Skillset is currently overseeing a four-year project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The purpose of this project is to grow the capability of Skillset English Media Academies to provide training and advice that will develop the knowledge and skills of both new entrants to the industry and the existing media workforce, at the same time as building the capabilities of media organisations to meet the new challenges they face. The project focuses on building talented new entrants through the development of a 2 Year Foundation Degree Internship Programme, workforce development through the development of Build Your Own MA Professional Media Short Courses and business development through the development of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) between Skillset Media Academies and media organisations. Skillset’s role has been pivotal to ensure industry relevance across all of these strands, carry out intensive marketing, encourage employers to help deliver the programmes and assist higher education institutions to move things forward in a timely manner.

22. Innovative projects such as these are already beginning to see tangible results. For example, the Skillset Media Academies are delivering a wide range of short courses as part of the Build Your Own MA portfolio. Each course carries Masters-level credits and is delivered by experienced academics and industry professionals to ensure its relevance. The short courses have attracted a small amount of Additional Student Number funding from HEFCE, but the activities are primarily funded through student fees and through co-funded arrangements whereby employers support and contribute to provision. Media companies, who have traditionally seen universities as the place to recruit junior staff, are now working with the Academies to provide staff development for their most senior staff. This CPD work has for example resulted in the BBC and the Guardian offering credit-bearing provision for the first time in conjunction with Bournemouth Skillset Media Academy, which is also delivering courses in collaboration with major games developer Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and film production body the Met Film School. At a time when the unit of resource provided by HEFCE to support teaching and learning is being decreased, this activity is generating valuable fully economically-costed income.

23. Innovation is crucial to the growth of the creative economy. Digital technology is re-shaping the economic landscape, demanding new business models and multi-disciplinary solutions that combine creativity with technological know-how and business skill. Skillset partnered in an important piece of research commissioned by the Universities UK to look at the wider role of Higher Education and Research in developing new ways of working, thinking and doing business. The report detailed a number of recommendations and provided a strong case and evidence base for support. In particular Skillset would highlight the need to build upon the work of the Skillset Film and Media Academy Network in creating innovation hubs.

24. Abertay Skillset Media Academy’s work with the games and digital media industries in Dundee is an excellent example of a university acting as regional hub for innovation, skills development and industry engagement with international reach. Engagement with industry and employers spans a number of connected models. Games development employers have a high degree of input to course design, and many of the local companies were started by Abertay alumni, including some who have been through the University’s Embreonix entrepreneurship programme. The local workforce also includes a high proportion of Abertay graduates supporting an active network across the region. The Institute’s Dare to be Digital competition has pioneered a workplace simulation model which is now built in to taught programmes, and is being used in professional academic development across all university disciplines. Dare has been widely cited as a model of best practice and brings interdisciplinary teams of arts and science students together to create and demonstrate games prototypes using original IP, while working in industry conditions and mentored by a UK ‘accord’ of games development companies. Over 100 teams of five students representing 80 different universities internationally entered the 2010 competition. The project has a wide international reach and has led to a number of international partnerships.

25. Similarly, building networks and distributing intelligence is a key part of Birmingham City University Skillset Media Academy’s contribution to the region’s economic development. Creative Networks hosts 12 events per year and features practitioners of national and international standing to engage industry in reviewing best practice and identifying how to improve performance. Events are geared around promoting networking and contact generation for emerging businesses. Birmingham City University Skillset Media Academy also runs a programme called Insight Out which has been recognised as a leading creative enterprise programme and has directly contributed to increasing creative start-ups in the Midlands. The programme has engaged the support of 48 organisations and 121 participants, specifically supporting graduate retention in the region. The project has directly contributed to the creation of 58 start-ups in five years. This is being extended with support from Birmingham city council for incubation space, which also involves Aston University and the University of Birmingham, in assisting city-based graduates to establish their own businesses.

26. In conclusion, Skillset believes that there should be an even closer relationship between higher education and industry and that there should be ongoing support for the Skillset Academy network and accredited courses, with Skillset continuing to play a coordinating role on strategic network development. Without Skillset’s continued support employers and higher education institutions may not have the time nor the inclination to drive forward innovative partnerships and projects that contribute substantially to the UK economy such as those described in this document.

10 March 2011