Once they had their degree students could go on to study for another year
Once they had their degree, students could go on to study for another year for a full honours degree, if they wished.The courses were to be set up by partnerships of colleges and universities, with the close involvement of employers. They were to provide the country with tens of thousands of better-skilled intermediate workers – managers, designers, computer specialists, engineers and health care workers – and give a huge boost to the Government’s plans to make higher education accessible to at least half of the country.But initial plans had to be scaled back. Setting up new work-related courses proved harder than it looked. Some employers were slow to come on board, and a number of prestigious universities were sceptical about what they saw as a “dumbed-down” degree. In addition, the planning of complicated work-placement and monitoring arrangements was often impossible in the short-time scale demanded, and with the limited money available.This year, just over 4,000 students are registered on 40 prototype courses, with hundreds of other courses under development. No one knows exactly how many more part-time courses are being set up, though about 130 colleges and universities are developing programmes.”It is a very patchy picture,” says Margaret Lawson, foundation-degree officer with the Association of Colleges, who says it also isn’t clear why some courses flourish while others flounder “I keep thinking I’ve cracked it I’ll start thinking, ‘Ah, so that’s it. It’s because it’s part-time’, or whatever, then I’ll go somewhere else and realise, ‘No, it isn’t that at all.’”Niche marketing seems to be one key to success.
Courses set up for specific professions have got off to a flying start. Classroom assistants’ courses are popular, as are courses for photographers, aeronautical engineers, and sports and leisure managers. But there have been problems with e-business and computer courses, and health-care courses have also struggled.”It’s a lot to do with the fact that health and social-care workers require cover costs if they are going to be given release to study, and who’s going to pay for that?” says Kate McTeer, senior officer of Bradford’s Foundation4Success consortium, which has had difficulties setting up a health-care course, although its other two courses, in finance and law, and in health-related exercise and fitness, are going well. Yet, like many other courses, the Bradford ones are not pulling in school-leavers but older students, keen to get a degree related to a career they are already in. Neither have the courses been able to attract many students from ethnic minorities yet.
All of which signals that foundation degrees may not be the immediate answer to the Government’s prayer of drawing huge extra numbers of under-thirties into higher education.It also seems unlikely that foundation degrees will subsume all existing higher vocational qualifications, as the Government has signalled that it intends.Many employers have been reluctant to get involved. “I do think that we are filling a niche that wasn’t there before.”But critics say that the new qualifications need to be marketed more aggressively to get them launched properly. A publicity push promised by the Government last summer never amounted to much, and many students, employers and even universities remain ignorant of what they all about.Funding is skimpy. In February, college principals demanded an extra £2.5m to cope with the expansion of post-16 learning, including foundation degrees. Tom Wilson points out that if tutors and employers are supposed to be working together, then they need time and money to make that collaboration work.
