Issue 124 | January 2022

From all at Click, we would like to wish you a happy, prosperous and Covid free new year

 INCREASE IN FUNDING FOR FULL TIME STUDENTS AGED 16 AND 17 IN ENGLAND

On 17 December, the  Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) published details of the increase in funding for full-time provision for 16-19-year-olds in England in the 2022/23 academic and financial year, and on 13 January published supporting documentation for colleges and schools on how to calculate their 2022/23 16-19 funding allocation. The increases announced on 17 December include the following:

• The national funding base rate for full time-students aged 16 and 17, will be increased from £4,188 to £4,542. This is part of the extra £1.6 billion that the Treasury pledged to invest in 16-19 education in the three-year period to 2024/25 in the October 2021 Spending Review and is in addition to the £400 million extra for 16-19 provision allocated in 2020/21.
• The ‘high value course premium’ will be increased from £400 to £600. The premium is an additional payment for the delivery of Level 3 courses that are deemed to be valued by employers, help meet skills shortages, lead to higher wages and help achieve a more productive economy.
• An increase in programme cost weighting (PCW) for five high-cost sector subject areas.
• An increase in the disadvantage funding (including additional funding to help support students who have low prior attainment and those who are in care, or who have recently left care).
• An increase in funding rates for T-Levels.

Although these increases have been welcomed by school and college leaders, they have drawn attention to a recent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) report, which says that even with the increases in funding over the next three years, 16-18 funding per student in 2024/25 will be 10% lower in real terms than it was in 2010.

INCREASE IN FUNDING FOR SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND

On 16 December, the ESFA published 2022/3 school funding allocations for each local authority in England. This is the second of a three-year cumulative £14 billion funding allocation. The funding includes an extra £1billion (13%) for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and £2 billion specifically to cover increases in school staff pay and pensions in 2022/23. Allocations from local authorities to schools are made in line with DfE operational guidance and, amongst other things, are based on the most up to date numbers of pupils in each school. The DfE requires all local authorities to pass on at least £4,265 per pupil to primary schools and £5,525 per pupil to secondary schools.

On 13 January the DfE published its latest details of allocations to academies, (which includes allocations to free schools and University Technical Colleges). They will receive similar increases in funding but will receive this directly from the DfE through the ESFA rather than through local authorities.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE INCREASE IN FUNDING RATES FOR COLLEGE STAFF PAY

FE college pay rates are determined by individual college corporations and can therefore differ substantially between colleges. FE college staff pay has remained largely stagnant in recent years and it has been estimated that FE college staff have experienced a real term 35% pay cut since 2009. The University and Colleges Union (UCU), which represents teaching staff, says that college corporations can now no longer use a lack of government funding as an excuse to hold down pay, and has called on colleges to give staff a substantial pay rise. UCU has described the current Association of Colleges’ (AoC) recommended offer of 1%, (which is the thirteenth below inflation offer in a row) as ‘joke’, with FE teachers’ average annual pay currently around £9,000 per year lower than school teacher’s average annual pay. A spokesperson for the AoC responded to this by saying that the financial outlook for 2022/23 was still ‘extremely challenging’ for colleges, with no increases in apprenticeship, adult or higher education funding rates despite rising inflation, and no specific funding allocation to cover additional employer pension or national insurance contributions.

DFE LAUNCHES SCHEME TO ENCOURAGE SKILLED INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS TO BECOME PART-TIME FE TEACHERS

Presumably in an attempt to tackle FE teacher shortages without having to pay higher wages, the Department for Education (DfE) has launched a new national scheme called ‘Teach in Further Education’ to encourage skilled workers and industry professionals to become part-time FE teachers, alongside their main job. The scheme’s website says that there is a particular demand for part-time FE teachers in construction, engineering and manufacturing, legal, finance, accounting, digital and health and social care. One cynic suggested that it was almost as if the DfE thought that recruiting part-time teachers with industry experience was something FE colleges had not thought of before.

The ‘Teach in Further Education’ programme follows the announcement of a £3 million expansion of the ‘Taking Teaching Further’ programme first launched in 2018, which is intended to help with the recruitment of an additional 4,000 skilled industry professionals to work as teachers in FE, but again without addressing the disincentive of the relatively low salaries currently on offer.

GOVERNMENT MEASURES TO HELP MITIGATE THE SURGE IN THE OMICRON COVID VARIANT ON STAFF ABSENCES

On 11 January, the DfE published data on staff sickness absence rates due to Covid infections in different education sectors in England. The absence rate for teachers in schools was 8.6%, with 4.9% being absent due to Covid. In addition, 3.9% of pupils were absent due to Covid. Staff absence rates were higher in state schools than private schools, and particularly so in respect of the most deprived state schools, which were three times more likely than private schools to report that at least one in 10 of their staff were absent. This further highlights the disproportionate impact the pandemic is having on the most disadvantaged young people.

In post-16 colleges around 4% of teachers, 3.4% of support staff, and 4% of students were absent due to Covid. Recent reports from colleges suggest that staff absences appear to have passed the peak since the start of term. Colleges also report that there appears to have been no major disruption to January exams.

In an attempt to mitigate the impact of the surge in Omicron variant Covid cases on staff absences, a number of measures were introduced which included the following:

• On 6 January, the DfE published ‘plan B’ Covid operational guidance for FE colleges, sixth form colleges (SFCs) and other post-16 FE providers. Amongst other things, the guidance said that from 4 January, face masks should be worn in classrooms and other teaching spaces (in addition to other communal areas where masks were already required). However, on 19 January, the DfE published updated Covid operational guidance and further guidance on health and safety risk assessments for colleges which said that from 20 January, the wearing of masks was no longer required anywhere on college premises. Despite this, several colleges are reported to have told their students that they should continue to wear face masks when in college.
• The advice to work from home was also rescinded, meaning that administrative and other staff not directly involved in student learning and learner support can now return to college.
• The DfE has confirmed that colleges and other FE providers are able to request an inspection deferral if they are experiencing high levels of staff absence due to Covid.
• Ofsted has confirmed that college leaders who serve as inspectors will be temporarily stood down from their inspection duties to allow them to focus on leading their institutions during the upsurge.
• The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended that young people aged 16 and 17 years should be offered a Pfizer Covid vaccine booster. On 17 January, around 40,000 16 and 17-year-olds were invited to book their third vaccine dose, to be given no sooner than three months after they received their second vaccination.
• The Education Secretary for England, Nadim Zahawi, called on retired teachers to volunteer to cover for colleagues who are absent due to Covid. As of 10 January, 485 retired teachers (including the former Ofsted Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw) and 100 Teach First alumni (who trained to become teachers through the programme, but now work outside the profession) had expressed an interest, although it appears that the DfE spent less than £4000 on measures to attract them.
• On 2 January, Mr Zahawi announced that an additional 7,000 air cleaning units would be provided for schools and colleges to improve ventilation in teaching spaces, with a further 1,000 air purifiers announced for special schools and alternative provision settings. (As an aside to this, some of you may have seen Mr Zahawi on television wearing a badge with the letters ‘TL’ emblazoned on his coat lapel. Assuming you are actually interested, the letters ‘TL’ stand for T-Levels).
• From 11 January, the Health Secretary for England, Sajid Javed, announced that people with no Covid symptoms who test positive using a lateral flow device (LFD) test will no longer need to take a follow up Polymerase Chain reaction (PCR) test, Those that do have Covid symptoms are required take a PCR test.
• On 13 January, Mr Javed, announced that on the basis of research carried out by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), from 17 January, the self-isolation period would be reduced from 7 to 5 days with the proviso that those required to self-isolate should test negative on day 5 and day 6. Research carried by the UKHSA shows that that around two-thirds of positive cases are no longer infectious by the end of day five. Assuming the majority of the working age population has received 3 vaccine doses, this is considered by many health officials (but by no means all) to be an acceptable level of risk to help mitigate staff shortages.
• On 19 January, it was announced that, subject to data on trends in Covid infections, it is intended that all current Covid restrictions in England will be lifted by 24 March, or earlier if the data allows.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE LEADERS CALL FOR MORE SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS TAKING EXAMS THIS SUMMER

Last November, the DfE said that to compensate for Covid disruption, students would be given advance notice of the topics they will be examined on in 2022 to help focus their revision, and in subjects such as GCSE maths and science, students will be given formulae sheets for equations to help them in the exam. However, school and college leaders have called for students to be given more support because the current proposals for exam ‘adaptations’ were put in place prior to the emergence of the Omicron Covid variant and may not be sufficient to compensate for the impact Omicron has had in terms of the disruption caused by staff and student absences this term. Ofqual is due to publish further information on advance notice of exam content and other adaptations for the summer 2022 exams on 7 February.

DFE ANNOUNCES EXTENSION TO EXAM SUPPORT SERVICE FUNDING

The Exam Support Service (ESS) was introduced in January 2021. This enabled schools and colleges to claim back the extra costs of running exams for those students who opted to re-sit their exams in the autumn of 2021 in an attempt to improve on the teacher assessed grades (TAGs) they were awarded in the summer. This current term an estimated 300,000 students will be taking vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) exams and other assessments, and on 2 January the DfE announced that the ESS scheme would be extended to the end of March to enable schools and colleges to claim back the extra costs of hiring external venues and hiring and training extra invigilators to cover those absent due to Covid. On 18 January, the DfE published guidance for colleges on how access ESS funding and the evidence they need to present to justify their funding claim.

OFQUAL PUBLISHES AN ANALYSIS OF 2021 GCSE, AS AND A-LEVEL TAG GRADES

On 16 December, Ofqual published a report on GCSE, AS and A-Levels in 2021. Exams were once again cancelled in that year due to Covid and replaced with TAGs. The report shows that:

• The proportion of students achieving three As or A*s at A-Level more than doubled compared with 2019, the last year in which external exams were held. At GCSE level, the proportion of grade 7s and above rose to 30% in 2021 compared with 22% in 2019.
• One in five schools and colleges had samples of their TAG evidence checked by exam boards to make sure that the way in which TAGs were awarded was accurate and fair. Where checks found that TAGs were not sufficiently supported by evidence, schools and colleges were asked to revisit the results.
• 7 million TAGs were awarded in total but of these, just 179 grades were decreased and 16 were increased. 133 grades were confirmed after more information had been provided by exam centres.
• TAGs should not have been announced before results day. However, students at 18 centres were told their results before results day. This occurred when TAGs were unwittingly stored in in secure areas of centres’ networks which students, or their parents or carers could access, or where grade notifications were sent automatically to students, or their parents or carers, via software for tracking and sharing students’ progress. In a small number of cases teachers deliberately disclosed TAGs before results day and this was treated as potential malpractice.
• With specific reference to the A-Level exams held in the autumn of 2021, 40% of students achieved results better than their summer TAG grades. Around 30% cent received the same grade as in the summer and another 30% received a lower grade.

PAST GRADE INFLATION HAS IMPLICATIONS FOR STUDENTS TAKING EXAMS IN THE FUTURE

Because of the cancellation of external exams over the last two years, GCSE and A-Level results have largely been determined through TAGs. Grades awarded were on average significantly higher than in 2019, the last year that external exams were held. For example, in 2021, 45% of A-Level entries were graded as A or A*, compared to just 26% in 2019, an increase that has been described as ‘statistically improbable’.

The DfE has now announced that, subject to any further Covid upsurges, external exams will be reintroduced this summer. The DfE has also said that by 2023, the grade inflation seen over the last two years should be reversed and moved back to pre-pandemic levels. To help achieve this, Ofqual has announced that, as a first step, grade boundaries in 2022 will be set to reflect a midway point between grades awarded 2021 and in 2019. This means that the proportion of top A-Level A* and A grades awarded next summer could fall by around 10%, which would be a record decrease.

This has led to concerns that there will be a backlash from students and their parents similar to that in 2020, when an algorithm used to moderate TAGs resulted in students receiving lower grades than they were expecting. The outrage and media frenzy that followed this eventually forced all UK governments to abandon the moderation algorithm, apologise to students and their parents for using it, and to confirm that students would be awarded their higher TAGs.

As Ofqual takes steps to reverse the grade inflation of the last 2 years, students taking external exams in 2022 and beyond will be doubly disadvantaged. They will not only have had their learning disrupted by the pandemic for more than two years, but they now also face the prospects of being awarded lower grades for the same standard of work as that achieved by students over the last two years. The DfE says that steps will be taken to help ensure that universities and future employers understand the context within which these lower grades will have been awarded and will take this into account when offering places or jobs.

OFSTED PUBLISHES ANALYSIS OF 2021 VTQ TAG GRADES

On 16 December, Ofqual published a report on 2021 vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) TAG grades. The report reveals (amongst other things) that:

• From October 2020 to September 2021, awarding organisations (AOs) issued a total of 4.6 million VTQ certificates. The majority of these were determined solely on normal or adapted assessments. However, 10% were determined wholly or in part by using alternative arrangements, including TAGs.
• 904,674 VTQ TAGs were submitted to AOs by exam centres. Following sample checks, 636 grades were changed, and 2,447 TAGs were referred back to the centres for reconsideration.

Grade inflation over the last two years has been nowhere near as pronounced in VTQ awards as it has been with GCSEs and A-Levels because, as mentioned above, the majority of VTQs were determined solely on the basis of normal or adapted assessments. 

OFSTED REPORT ON POST-COVID EDUCATION RECOVERY IN THE FE AND SKILLS SECTOR

On 16 December, Ofsted published a report on the extent to which FE and skills providers were recovering from the pandemic. The report, entitled ‘Education recovery in further education and skill providers: autumn’, is based on the findings of 39 inspections of FE and skills providers carried out between 1 November and 19 November 2021 (excluding monitoring visits and prison inspections), and reveals that:

• Apprentice numbers fell by almost a fifth between 2018/19 and 2020/21.
• Financial pressures caused some firms to lay off apprentices, while some firms that closed down during lockdown and did not re-open afterwards and their apprentices were made redundant.
• Many apprentices who had been furloughed were unable to complete their apprenticeship programmes because of difficulties with providing suitable remote learning, and face-to-face practical assessments.
• Many college students had been unable to complete the practical elements of their programmes.
• Where college students had been absent for long periods, most colleges provided additional tuition and allowed students to repeat elements of their course.
• Safeguarding concerns had increased. Student mental health had suffered. There were more examples of sexual abuse and domestic violence during lockdowns, and there was evidence of greater reliance on food banks. The transition out of lockdown and back to face-to-face learning in college or in the workplace had caused some students a high level of anxiety.
• The workload of many staff had increased, particularly in respect of helping students to catch-up and providing evidence for TAGs. In some cases, staff mental health had deteriorated.
• Both staff and student attendance had deteriorated, largely due to the need to self-isolate.
• Students’ motivation deteriorated during lockdown and re-engaging them often proved to be difficult.

DFE PUBLISHES ITS 2020/21 ANNUAL CONSOLIDATED ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

On 20 December the DfE published its latest consolidated report and accounts for 2020/21. The report provides details of the DfE’s activities and expenditure (including that on addressing Covid related challenges). The report covers the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. With reference to FE, the report says that although there was a slight improvement in overall college financial health, the financial resilience of some FE colleges remained a concern. A ‘significant number of FE colleges were still not financially robust enough to make the long-term investments needed for them to support the productivity of their local economies’. The report also says that Covid had caused ‘a high level of instability in income’ and this meant that a ‘significant minority of colleges may need emergency funding in the current year’.

The report reveals that the ESFA spent £33 million supporting the National Colleges initiative. This included a £9.4 million write off of debt owed by the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (formerly known as the National College for High-Speed Rail), which was dissolved last year with its provision taken over by the University of Birmingham. The ESFA also wrote off of £3.3 million spent on research and development for a building project for the National College for Digital Skills (Ada).

UTCS: ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are neither universities nor colleges. They are a type of free school offering one or more vocational options to pupils aged 14-19, alongside a normal school curriculum. Around 50 UTCs have been opened since they were first launched in 2010 but 11 have since been closed. Many of these faced difficulties with the quality of their provision, and in recruiting a sufficient number of pupils. Some UTCs now recruit pupils from age 11 to bolster their intake. Earlier this month, Sir Simon Milton Westminster UTC became the 12^th to announce its closure. The UTC opened in 2017 with a capacity for 550 pupils aged 14 to 19, but at present there are only 75 pupils. The college has received almost £2 million in capital grants since 2017 and has required further DfE financial support because of operating losses. Its building will be taken over by Ada, the National College for Digital Skills (mentioned in the section above).

COLLEGES AND ITPS INVITED TO APPLY FOR FOURTH WAVE T-LEVEL CAPITAL FUNDING

On 17 December, colleges and independent training providers (ITPs) involved delivering the fourth wave of the T-Level rollout in 2023 were invited to bid for a share of £150 million from the T-Level capital fund (TLCF). The fund is intended to help T-Level providers upgrade their facilities and pay for specialist equipment needed to meet industry standards. The TLCF consists of two elements. These are:

• A building and facilities improvement grant (BFIG), which providers have to bid for. Providers must register their intention to bid by 31 January and submit their bids by 11 March. Only FE colleges, SFCs, higher education institutions, schools, academies, and university technical colleges (UTCs) involved in the fourth T-Level wave are eligible to apply. The BFIG is, controversially, not available to ITPs
• A specialist equipment allocation. This will be awarded to all providers involved in delivering the fourth T-Level wave, with funds allocated via a formula.

This latest allocation builds on TLCF allocations in previous years, with £38 million being allocated to first wave providers, £95 million to second wave providers, and £135 million to third wave providers.

OFSTED T-LEVEL RESEARCH DELAYED BY A FURTHER YEAR

In December 2020, Ofsted was commissioned by the DfE to carry out ‘thematic’ research on the implementation of T-Levels and the T-Level transition programme during the first two years of operation. The thematic survey involves visiting around 100 current T-Level providers and providing the DfE with an independent assessment of the quality of T-Levels, including strengths, weaknesses, areas for improvement, and evidence of good practice. An interim report was due to be published by Ofsted in September 2021 with the final report published in September 2022. However, although visits to T-Level providers are continuing, Ofsted has announced that because of the disruption caused by Covid, the interim report will not be published until September 2022, with final report published in September 2023.

DFE PUBLISHES DATA ON T-LEVEL STARTS IN SEPTEMBER 2021

On 15 December, the DfE published its updated T-Level Action Plan 2021 which reveals that last September, around 5,450 young people started on one of ten T-Level courses taught across four T-Level routes delivered by 102 providers. Provisional data on student enrolment submitted to the DfE by providers shows that:

• 1,150 students started on a T-Level course within the Construction Route
• 1,200 started on a course within the Digital Route
• 1,500 started courses within the Education and Childcare Route
• 1,600 started courses within the Health and Science Route.

In addition, 3,550 students started a T-Level Transition Programme, with around 70 T-Level providers now delivering the courses within the first four T-Level routes.

DFE PUBLISHES LIST OF UK UNIVERSITIES ACCEPTING T-LEVELS FOR ENTRY TO AT LEAST ONE DEGREE COURSE

The first T-Level students (in Digital, Construction, and Education and Childcare) commenced their courses in September 2020 and due to complete their courses this summer. The DfE says that T-Level qualifications, being equivalent to 3 A-Levels, meet matriculation requirements for university entrance, and as such, the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) has allocated tariff points for T-Levels.

On 17 December, the DfE published a list of universities and other HE providers prepared to accept students onto degree level courses on the basis of their T-Level qualification. The list reveals that of 140 UK universities, just 80 are, as yet, willing to accept T-Levels for entry to at least one of their undergraduate courses. The other universities, including 10 Russell Group universities, say they are still undecided, despite the 26 January UCAS deadline for 2022 applications. Commenting on this, the DfE has acknowledged that while universities are independent and set their own entry requirements, it is essential that T-Level students are provided with information on whether their qualifications met their requirements as soon as possible. Universities UK, which represents the country’s 140 universities acknowledged the delay but says that it expects to see the level of T-Level acceptance by universities increase as the number of T-Level subjects on offer increases.

REPORT COMPARES DIFFERING EXPERIENCES OF STUDENTS ENTERING UNIVERSITY WITH BTECS AND A-LEVELS

On 12 January, the Nuffield Foundation published a report entitled Educational choices at 16-19 and university outcomes. The report analyses the relationship between students’ backgrounds, entry qualifications (BTEC or A-Levels) and their educational experience at university, and finds that:

• Students who entered universities with BTEC qualifications were almost twice more likely to drop out of their course than students who entered with A-Levels (11.4% compared to 6%).
• Students entering university with BTECs were almost twice more likely to repeat their first year than those with A-levels.
• While 60% of students entering with BTECs students obtained at a least an upper second-class honours degree, they were 1.4 times less likely to do so than students who entered with A-levels. The gap becomes even larger for BTEC students entering from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The report says that although BTECs are a highly effective route to a degree for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, there was a need for universities to have a better understanding of the issues and challenges faced by BTEC students. The report also says that universities should consider changing the structure of their courses (for example, making them more modular) to help close the gap between students entering university with BTECs and those entering with A-Levels.

The question of university entry qualifications that are an alternative to A-Levels remains in flux, not least because of the government’s decision to defund most BTEC qualifications in favour of their eventual replacement by T-Levels.

COLLEGES SUBMIT CASES TO RETAIN ALLOCATIONS FOR AEB CONTRACTS MADE UNDELIVERABLE BY COVID

In March last year the ESFA notified providers that they would only receive their full 2020/21 Adult Education Budget (AEB) funding if they could prove they had delivered at least 90% of their contracted provision. Colleges argued that they had spent much of their allocation in advance in preparing to run courses, but the pandemic had prevented them from delivering provision to the required 90% level. Initially, the ESFA insisted that it intended to claw back funds providers that had failed to deliver to this level, However, it became apparent that doing so would cause many colleges and other providers serious financial difficulties. This caused the ESFA to change its position and circulate guidance giving details of how those providers that had failed to deliver to the 90% threshold could put forward a business case to be allowed to retain a proportion, or all, of the AEB funds that otherwise would have been clawed back.

On 8 December, in answer to a question in parliament from Toby Perkins, the shadow Apprenticeships and Lifelong Learning Minister, the ESFA reported that 78 providers had submitted a business case. Of these, 58 were FE colleges, and of these, 48 were successful. The remaining 20 submissions were from other types of providers, of which 17 were successful. The ten colleges and three other providers whose business cases had failed were told by the ESFA that they could appeal, with the outcomes expected to be confirmed by the end of January and final funding claims due to be published at the end of March.

EDUCATION SECRETARY EXTENDS DEPUTY FE COMMISSIONERS’ CONTRACTS

The Further Education Commissioner for England, Shelagh Legrave CBE, works with a team of 12 FE advisers and six deputy commissioners. All appointments to these posts are made by the Secretary of State for Education in England. On 30 December, the DfE announced that all six deputy further education commissioners have had their contracts extended with effect from 1 January 2022 and will run to various dates between April and August 2023.

DFE PUBLISHES POLICY PAPER ON FORMAL ACCREDITATION FOR PROVIDERS OF ONLINE EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The online education services sector in England has grown rapidly in recent years, and particularly so during the pandemic. Many providers now offer a full curriculum that may be a young person’s main, or only, source of formal education. However, this type of provision is currently unregulated. The DfE is therefore in the process of introducing an Online Education Accreditation Scheme (OEAS) to help ensure that online education providers offer high standards of education, care and safeguarding for their pupils/students. The DfE consulted on proposals for the OEAS in September 2019 and published its response to the consultation on 10 June 2020.

In June 2021, the DfE appointed Ofsted to act as the quality assurance body for providers regulated by the OEAS and, between June and July 2021, Ofsted conducted ‘trial visits’ to a small number of online providers to inform any necessary refinements to the scheme before it commences. On 24 November 2021, Ofsted launched a consultation on how it proposed carry out this role, which closes on 26 January.

On 24 December 2021, The DfE published a policy paper on how the accreditation scheme would be implemented. Providers will be expected to pay a fee for initial due diligence and accreditation visits. The fee structure for the scheme will be outlined in due course and providers will be able to apply for OEAS accreditation later this year. To be eligible to apply for accreditation, providers must:

• Teach online only, and on a permanent basis.
• Provide a full curriculum that is a child’s or young person’s main, or only, source of education.
• Are based in England and are registered with Companies Houseor the Charity Commission.

MINISTERS CONSIDER ALLOWING PRISONERS TO PARTICIPATE IN APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMMES

Speaking at a meeting of the House of Commons Education meeting on 18 January, the Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships in England, Alex Burghart, told committee members that the government was considering the possibility of allowing prisoners in the latter stages of their sentences to start apprenticeship programmes while they are in prison and continue with them when they have been released. This could involve some prisoners being allowed to access to learning on a digital device via the internet in their cell, and some being allowed to leave prison on a day release basis to attend external providers’ premises for elements of off-the-job training. The discussions on this can be seen on Parliament TV here.

IFATE PUBLISHES REPORT ON DEGREE APPRENTICESHIP REFORMS

Last year the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) launched a consultation on proposals for how degree apprenticeships are developed and approved. The consultation ended in September and based on the responses received, IfATE published a report earlier this covering its proposals for change. The report confirms that there will be 5 main changes to the way degree apprenticeships are organised, managed and approved. These are as follows:

• Degree apprenticeships will only be used to support graduate-entry occupations (but there will be no obligation on employers to convert their current Level 6 and Level 7 apprenticeships to degree apprenticeships).
• There will be better integration of on-the-job and off-the-job training.
• There will be a better alignment of apprenticeship knowledge, skills and behaviour with degree learning outcomes.
• The end point assessment (EPA) of occupational competence in a degree apprenticeship will be integrated with the final assessment and grading of the degree.
• The development and accreditation process for degree apprenticeships will always involve the participation of an independent assessor with appropriate occupational expertise and experience.

Meanwhile, the controversy about the extent to which degree apprenticeships duplicate other degree routes whilst at the same time consuming a disproportionate amount of the apprenticeship budget still remains unresolved. In April 2021 Ofsted took over the remit to inspect degree apprenticeships from the Office for Students (OfS). The Chief Inspector for England, Amanda Spielman has continued to express concerns that several universities are still offering apprenticeships at Level 6 and 7 that were ‘simply repackaged graduate schemes’. In a recent Ofsted inspection report, it was found that one university had recruited almost 1,000 students onto degree apprenticeships that were existing undergraduate programmes that had been rebadged as apprenticeships.

NINE NEW ‘SECOND WAVE’ INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCED

On 17 December, the DfE announced the names of the three FE colleges and nine universities selected to share £120 million in capital funding to develop the second wave of Institutes of Technology (IoTs). These are intended to be collaborative ventures between employers, colleges and universities that specialise in providing higher technical education and training in subjects required to meet the needs of local employers. The additional nine IoTs will join the twelve already established, meaning that every region of England now has access at least one IoT.

HIGHER EDUCATION DELIVERED IN FURTHER EDUCATION COLLEGES

Data produced by the Association of Colleges for 2020/21 reveals that there were 162 FE colleges on OfS register of HE providers, delivering HE courses to 118,000 students. Of these students:

• 31,000 were under the age of 21
• 22,000 were aged between 21 and 24
• 65,000 were aged 25+.

The AoC data also shows that FE colleges deliver:

• 84% of Higher National Certificates (Level 4)
• 66% of Higher National Diplomas (Level 5)
• 67% of Foundation Degrees (Level 5).

MEG SUBMITS RESPONSE TO OFS CONSULTATION OF HE QUALITY AND STANDARDS

Forty FE colleges that offer large amounts of HE provision have combined to form the ‘Mixed Economy Group’ (MEG). In addition to representing their interests in the HE sector, the group also provides a focus for FE college based HE providers to meet, discuss and share good practice and to receive up to date information and advice on HE matters. Representative of government agencies, funding and quality bodies and other HE providers are often invited to attend MEG meetings. On 17 November last year the OfS published a consultation document for HE providers on proposed changes to how the OfS regulates and monitors HE quality and standards, along with proposals on how the OfS should intervene should this become necessary. Questions asked in the consultation (which ended on 25 January) asks for views on:

• Measuring student outcomes.
• Monitoring providers’ compliance with OfS regulatory requirements for quality and standards.
• Intervening and gathering information in the wake of concerns about quality and standards.
• Dealing with any unintended consequences that might arise from the implementation of the consultation proposals (e.g., negative impact on a particular type of provider, course, or student).

MEG has prepared and submitted its own response to the OfS consultation document, a copy of which can be found here. (Thanks to Carl Flint of MEG for providing this).

HEPI REPORT CALLS FOR LOWER EMPHASIS ON ‘FIRST-IN-FAMILY’ STATUS WHEN OFFERING PLACES AT UNIVERSITY

For several years, the number of students recruited who were the first in their family to attend university has been used as a key measure of the extent to which a university is improving access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Because universities are required to provide the OfS with evidence of their success in widening participation, they have tended to make ‘contextualised offers’ to first-in-family applicants, which usually means they have been more ‘flexible’ in terms of their entry requirements.

A report published earlier this month by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) entitled ‘First in Family Students’ says that more than two-thirds (68%) of the 2020/21 intake of undergraduate students were recorded as first-in-family, and calls into question how valuable the use of this metric is as a measure of success in widening participation. The report goes further, and argues that universities should stop using the metric, since it is potentially ‘flawed’. This, says the report, is because:

• First-in- family status is ‘self-declared and unverifiable’, and when it is known that ‘contextual’ offers are being made on this basis, it ‘provides a clear incentive for young people to misreport’.
• First-in-family students are not necessarily students from low-income families.
• There are many different definitions for first-in-family status. It is usually interpreted by universities as meaning that a student is in the first in their family to go to university. But when defining ‘first-in-family’, many universities also include students whose parents have high level technical or professional qualifications, but who did not go to university, or students who are the first sibling in a family or the first in a step-family to go to university, or whose spouse or partner had not gone to university.

First-in-family status, says the report, has also been applied disproportionately to young people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. Universities have tended to assume that BAME applicants were first-in-family to attend university. But many BAME parents are university graduates and BAME young people are proportionately more likely to go to university than young white people. (The latest data shows that while 18.3% of the population of people aged 19-26 in England and Wales are classed as BAME, the BAME undergraduate student intake is 26.2%).

The report does acknowledge that first-in-family students are less likely to be accepted into highly selective universities and are more likely to drop out from their courses. Data from the 2021 HEPI/Advance HE Student Academic Experience Survey suggests that, using current definitions, non-first-in-family students are 50% more likely to attend a Russell Group university, whereas first-in-family students were 25% more likely to attend a post-1992 university.

Given the number of undergraduates now recorded as first-in-family, the HEPI report concludes that more careful consideration is needed when making contextual offers to students on this basis, otherwise there was ‘a risk of intensifying existing education inequalities’.

GROWING PRESSURE ON UNIVERSITIES TO STOP OFFERING ‘LOW VALUE’ DEGREES

Universities and colleges offering HE provision in England are under increasing pressure from the government to cease offering ‘low-value’ degrees. ‘Low value’ degrees are defined as those deemed to be failing to offer any real benefit to students in terms of access to graduate level jobs with higher earnings and/or those of little value to employers in terms of meeting higher level skills shortages and improving productivity. Creative arts is given an example of a ‘low value’ degree in research carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) in 2020. The IfS research suggests that men taking creative arts degree courses experience an average net loss of about £100,000 across their lifetime compared to if they had not gone to university.

To help meet the government’s objective, on 20 January the OfS published a consultation on proposals for reducing the number of ‘low value’ courses. The proposals include the setting of robust and quantifiable outcome targets for retention and completion, progression into graduate level work with the potential higher earnings and other positive outcomes for students. The OfS propose that these targets should be applied to both under-graduate and post-graduate courses, and to degree apprenticeships. The OfS’s thresholds for student outcomes include the following:

• 80% of students should continue into a second year of study
• 75% should complete their qualification
• 60% should obtain employment at graduate level or progress to higher study.

The OfS also says that it will also provide guidance to universities and colleges with HE provision on how to assess their own performance internally against the targets set and how to identify the action needed to secure the required improvements. The OfS also makes proposals for the external investigation of HE providers failing to meet the targets set, and for the imposition of sanctions such as fines, reduced funding allocations and restrictions on access to student loan funding for those that fail to improve.

In what was presumably intended to be a pre-emptive move to avoid the prospect of external regulation being imposed on universities, on 17 January (3 days before the OfS published its consultation), UUK published its own proposals for dealing with ‘low value’ courses. Perhaps unsurprisingly, UUK’s proposals reflect those proposed in OfS consultation, but rather than being subject to external investigation, UUK recommends that universities review their own underperforming courses and publish ‘high-level’ summaries signed off by their governing councils which outline the action to be taken to secure required improvements.

UUK PUBLISHES REPORT ON PROGRESS MADE IN ADDRESSING DEGREE GRADE INFLATION

The government has expressed concerns about the level of degree grade inflation, which it says is undermining public confidence in the HE sector. (As an example of this, there was a 90% increase in the number of first-class honour degrees awarded in England over the 8 year period to November 2020). In response to this, on 13 August last year UUK published a report which set out actions that universities were expected to take to protect degree standards. On 21 January, UUK published a follow-up report outlining the progress universities were making in keeping grade inflation under control. The latest UUK report provides examples of progress made since then. These examples include the following:

• Universities have reviewed the use of algorithms to convert the marks obtained by a student in various assessments into a degree result, and are placing more emphasis on using the new UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment (UKSCQA) principles.
• Universities now share their degree classification descriptors with students, providing them with a clear summary of the standard that must be reached for each classification.
• Under the direction of UUK, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) is currently undertaking work to strengthen the system of external moderation.
• Universities now publish ‘statements of intent’ in respect of action to be taken on grade inflation. The report claims that case studies from seven universities show that this is making a ‘tangible difference’.
• UUK now shares best practice in universities in addressing grade inflation and has committed to issuing further guidance to universities when thought necessary.

UCAS PUBLISHES NEW REPORT ON THE EXPERIENCES OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT UK UNIVERSITIES

On 13 January, UCAS published a report entitled ‘Where next? The experience of international students connecting to UK higher education’. The report says that the number of undergraduate applicants from outside of the EU this year has increased by more than 12%. The report goes on to say that China remains by far the largest market for UK international student recruitment, with more international applicants from China than from Europe. Fees from Chinese students now make up around 10% of UK university revenue, with many UK universities now heavily relying on recruiting students from China to maintain their income levels. In one university (Liverpool) one in five students is now from China. India is the second largest market for UK international student recruitment, but applications from the USA have grown by 49% this year, which is the largest proportional increase in applicants from any major nation. The report says that the reasons given by applicants for choosing to study in the UK include the following:

• 88% said that they see the UK as a positive, or very positive, place to study.
• 77% said that it was because of the UK’s strong academic reputation.
• 53% said that it was because of the UK’s diversity and multicultural nature.
• 47% said it was because of the prestige of UK universities.
• 45% said it was because of they wanted to continue to live and work in the UK after they graduated.
• 36% of undergraduates and 49% of postgraduates (43% combined) said it was because of the quality of teaching they expected to receive.

However, those applying also said that there was a need to provide applicants with more support prior to starting their course, more information on fees, accommodation and opportunities for funding support, along with more information on employment options in the UK both during and upon completion of their courses.

It is worth noting that more than 100 FE colleges also provide courses for international students with, once again, China and India, providing the largest markets for student recruitment.

AND FINALLY…

A group of A-Level Politics students were discussing the role of passive resistance in bringing about political change. The class teacher asked the students if they could give an example of a person in recent history who had brought about political change through passive resistance, and what else they knew about that person. One of the students said ‘Yes, Mahatma Gandhi. Although Gandhi was a lawyer who trained at the Inner Temple in London, he became an anti-colonial Indian nationalist and went on to become leader of the Indian National Congress. Gandhi used passive resistance to help achieve the independence of India in 1947 and then went on to inspire the use of passive resistance in the fight for civil rights and freedoms across the world’.

‘Outstanding, I’m very impressed’, said the astonished teacher, ‘Do you know anything else about Gandhi?’

‘Well,’ replied the student, ‘I know that Gandhi walked barefoot most of the time. This produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. I also know that his philosophy of passive resistance was very much influenced by the teachings of the Vaishnava Hindu and Jain religions. And I know that he was a vegetarian who ate very little, which not only made him rather frail, but also caused him to have bad breath’.

The teacher was intrigued by this response and asked the student why this aspect of Gandhi’s character was of significance.

‘It reveals a lot about Gandhi.’ replied the student, ‘In addition to being a leader of great stature and an advocate of passive resistance, he was also a super calloused fragile mystic, hexed with halitosis.

Alan Birks – January 2022

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