Issue 135 | February 2023

CABINET RESHUFFLE

On 7 February, following the dismissal of Nadhim Zahawi as Conservative Party Chair, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak carried out a ‘mini’ cabinet reshuffle. Greg Hands was appointed as the new Chair and Lee Anderson as Deputy Chair. No doubt much to the relief of civil servants who have served under five different Education Secretaries in less than a year, there were no ministerial changes at the Department for Education (DfE). However, the Department for Business, Energy, Industry and Strategy (BEIS) was broken up into three separate departments and their training programmes could, perhaps, impact on the FE and HE sectors in England. The three new departments are as follows:

• The Department for Business and Trade: This brings together the business-related functions of the BEIS and those of the Department for International Trade (DIT). Kemi Badenoch was appointed as Secretary of State for the new Department, with Nigel Huddleston, Nusrat Ghani, Maria Caufield and Kevin Hollinrake in junior ministerial posts.
• The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero: This is headed by Grant Shapps who becomes the Secretary of State for the new department, his fourth Cabinet position in five months. Graham Stuart and Andrew Bowie have been appointed to junior ministerial posts in the new department.
• The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology: This new department is headed by Michelle Donelan as Secretary of State, with George Freeman and Paul Scully in junior ministerial posts. Lucy Frazer has replaced Michelle Donelan as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

GUIDES PUBLISHED TO HELP COLLEGES MEET REQUIREMENTS OF PUBLIC SECTOR STATUS

Last November, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reclassified colleges as public sector organisations. The change in legal status means that colleges are now required to comply with government rules on managing public money. On 31January, the DfE published five guides to help colleges meet their new legal obligations (with a further guide on taking out loans for capital expenditure expected to be published in due course). The five guides currently available cover the following areas:

Senior pay controls: From 1 May this year, colleges must seek DfE prior approval to award senior managers an annual salary in excess of £150,000 and bonuses in excess of £17,500. This applies to existing staff who take up new posts at a higher level in the same college, and new external appointments to vacant senior posts. Further guidance on senior staff pay award thresholds can be found here. Guidance for colleges on how to apply for approval to award pay above the thresholds can be found here.

Requirements for write-offs and losses: Colleges must only write-off debts and losses after all reasonable action has been taken to recover public funds lost. This is irrespective of whether the recipients can be shown to have acted in bad faith, or in good faith. Colleges are also required to clearly document the circumstances of the transaction which led to the loss or write-off, and also record the details of the action the college has taken to recover the funds. Prior DfE approval must automatically be sought when:

• The loss or write off exceeds either £45,000, or 1% of the college’s annual income (whichever is smaller).
• The loss or write off will take the college’s total write-offs and losses for the year beyond £250,000 or above 5% of the college’s annual income (whichever is smaller).

Examples of the application of these approval levels can be found here.

Special payments: These include:

• Severance payments.
• Payments that are in excess of contractual or statutory entitlements.
• Ex-gratia payments.

The guidance says that special payments should not be used as a means of avoiding having to take management action and/or disciplinary proceedings against poorly performing staff. Colleges will also be required to document any prior legal or specialist human resources advice they have sought. With reference to severance payments, the guidance says that prior DfE approval is required for:

• Payments of £50,000 or more (before tax).
• A payment that is equivalent to, or in excess of, three months’ salary (before tax).
• When the recipient has an annual salary of £150,000 or more.
• Payments of any amount that are linked to non-disclosure agreements.
• An exit package which includes a special staff severance payment that is at, or above, £100,000.

The guidance also says that:

• Confidentiality clauses cannot be used to prevent an ex-member of staff’s right to ‘whistle blow’ if this is deemed to be in the public interest as defined by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.
• For compensation pay outs, such as in injury cases where it has been established that the college is at fault or has been negligent, colleges have delegated authority to pay amounts up to £50,000 (although a record of the circumstances must be kept). Any payment in excess of this requires prior DfE approval,
• Ex-gratia payments must always gain prior DfE approval.

Indemnities, guarantees and letters of comfort: These are regarded as potential contingent liabilities (liabilities that may occur in the future) and are defined as follows:

• An indemnity is a contractual agreement of one party (the indemnifier) to accept the risk of damage or loss suffered by another party and to compensate that other party for any damage or loss.
• A guarantee. This is usually a commitment provided by one party (the guarantor) to take responsibility for the debt or performance obligations of another party in the case of that party defaulting on its debt or performance obligations.
• A ‘letter of comfort’, however vague, gives rise to moral and often legal obligations. They should therefore be regarded as the same as any other arrangement that may give rise to a contingent liability.

Although colleges are not normally required to obtain prior DfE approval if they are ‘in the normal course of business’, they cautioned to exercise care when entering into contractual or other arrangements that indemnify external contractors for losses (e.g. for such things the provision of catering services). However, they are required to obtain prior DfE approval if:

• The contract is not ‘in the normal course of business’.
• If the indemnities and guarantees proposed could result in liabilities that will exceed 5% of the college’s annual income or reach a total £250,000 or more (whichever is lower).
• A single indemnity or guarantee of £45,000 or more is involved.

The guidance says that colleges should maintain a register of indemnity contracts and other guarantee arrangements and are reminded that the change in their legal status means that any college liabilities incurred will also become government liabilities.

Novel, contentious and repercussive transactions:

These are defined as follows:

• ‘Novel transactions’ are those that are outside a college’s ‘normal course of business’, or a transaction of a type that the college has no previous experience of.
• ‘Contentious transactions’ are those which could attract negative comments or criticism from the likes of politicians, the public or the media.
• ‘Repercussive transactions’ are those which may set an adverse legal precedent for the college and/or may have wider implications for other colleges or the wider FE sector.

Colleges will be required to obtain prior DfE approval for any transaction that might fall within the above definitions. Colleges are expected set out their business case for doing so and provide the DfE with an assessment of the risks, opportunities, benefits and drawbacks of doing so. When considering whether to grant approval, the DfE will consider reputational risk, value for public money and financial risk.
College borrowing for capital expenditure and/or to assist with the management of cash flow: Although no formal guidance has yet been issued by the DfE, the ‘Managing Public Money’ rules mentioned above means that colleges now have to obtain DfE permission prior to take out commercial loans and overdrafts. Again, this is because the change of legal status means that college liabilities also become government liabilities. The DfE has accepted that restrictions on colleges taking out commercial loans could jeopardise planned capital projects and could also cause problems for colleges using bank overdrafts to help deal with temporary cash flow difficulties. To help colleges affected by this, the DfE’s Finance and Provider Market Oversight (FPMO) team is providing them with advice on securing the necessary DfE borrowing consents. For the longer term, the DfE says that it is planning to introduce its own loans scheme for colleges but has admitted that the amount of government loan funding available may not be sufficient for more substantial capital projects and that some commercial borrowing may be necessary to bridge any funding gaps.

MOST LEVEL 3 ‘ALTERNATIVE’ APPLIED GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS ARE LIKELY BE DEFUNDED

The DfE is in the process of introducing a simplified system of post-16 qualifications. The system basically gives 16-year-old school leavers with the appropriate GCSE grades a choice of studying either A-levels, or T-Levels or taking a Level 3 apprenticeship programme. Part of the DfE’s strategy for enforcing this is to withdraw public funding from ‘alternative’ Level 3 courses’ (including BTECs) that duplicate or overlap with T-Levels. The DfE says that some Level 3 applied general qualifications will continue be publicly funded if they can demonstrate that the qualification satisfies the new approvals criteria set by the DfE. On 14 October last year the DfE published a list of qualifications that it had already decided did not meet the criteria and will therefore be defunded from 2024 onwards. On 10 January the DfE published detailed guidance for awarding organisations on the approvals criteria that alternative qualifications not yet on the list needed to meet to continue to be publicly funded along with the timetable for awarding organisations to apply for continued public funding for such qualifications.

Nadhim Zahawi, during the brief period when he was Education Secretary, gave a commitment that the new approvals process meant that only a ‘small proportion’ of ‘alternative’ Level 3 qualifications would have their funding withdrawn. However, an analysis carried out by the Protect Student Choice Campaign finds that almost all alternative Level 3 courses will fail to meet the new criteria needed for continued public funding. The analysis also gives examples of Level 3 courses students aged 16-18 are currently enrolled on that will be defunded before the students actually complete their course. This has prompted six members of the House of Lords, including two former Secretaries of State for Education (David Blunkett and Ken Baker), two former junior education ministers (David Willetts and Jo Johnson) to write to the current Secretary of State for Education in England, Gillian Keegan, to express their disappointment that Mr Zahawi’s commitment that ‘only a few’ alternative Level 3 qualifications would not be funded will not be met.

DFE ANNOUNCES NEW FINANCIAL INCENTIVES FOR FIRMS TO OFFER T-LEVEL STUDENT INDUSTRY PLACEMENTS

T-Level programmes require students to undertake a mandatory industry placement of 45 days or 315 hours. However, it has proved difficult to find enough employers willing or able to provide enough industry placements. To help address this, the DfE has previously offered a range of financial incentives to encourage employers to offer T-Level placements. For example, between 27 May 2021 and 31 July 2022, the DfE offered £1,000 for each T Level student placement offered, up to a maximum of 20.

On 9 February, the DfE published updated guidance on 16-19 funding bands for 2023/24, which included a 10% uplift in T-Level funding bands. However, the DfE also announced that a further £12 million will be made available to encourage employers to offer industry placements for T-Level students. From 1 April employers offering placements will be eligible to claim between £5,000 and £10,000 depending on the number of placements they provide to help meet the costs of set-up, equipment and staff training. The DfE says that further guidance on claims and payments will be made available for employers in March. The DfE has also announced that all providers delivering T-Levels in the 2023/24 academic year will be eligible to receive a one-off grant of up to £10,000 to help prospective students understand what T-Level programmes have to offer, to provide information about the T-Level Transition programme for those as yet without the necessary qualifications to start a T-Level, and to provide additional careers guidance for T-Level students towards the end of their programme.

APPLICATIONS FOR THIRD YEAR OF THE TURING SCHEME NOW OPEN

The Turing Scheme replaced the Erasmus+ programme when the UK finally left the EU in 2020. The Erasmus+ programme was predominantly used by UK universities to facilitate international student exchanges, but the Turing scheme also enables UK schools and colleges to provide students from all backgrounds with an opportunity to study and work abroad. This year (2022/23), more than 38,000 young people have been able to gain international experience in over 160 countries across the world, with more than half those young people being from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds.

Applications for funding in the third year of the Turing Scheme, which starts in September 2023, opened on 14 February and will close on 6 April. The scope of activities that can be funded through the scheme remain the same as in previous years. Providers in the UK can check if they are eligible to apply for funding by reading the 2023/24 Programme Guide and can get help with completing their applications with the step-by-step 2023/24 Application Guide. Additional support remains in place for participants from disadvantaged backgrounds to cover the cost of such things as passports and visas and this is provided on an actual cost basis.

DFE PUBLISHES DATA ON APPRENTICESHIP STARTS IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2022/23

Data on apprenticeships for the first quarter (Q1) of the 2022/23 academic year (Aug – Oct) shows that:

• Apprenticeship starts decreased by 6.1% to 122,290 (down from 130,240 in Q1 of 2021/22).
• Under 19s accounted for 31.5% of Q1 starts.
• Advanced Apprenticeships at Level 3 (equivalent to 2 A-Levels) accounted for 41.8% of starts.
• Higher Apprenticeships at Level 4 to 7 accounted 34.4% of Q1 starts. (Level 4 is equivalent to the first year of a Bachelors’ Degree or a Higher National Certificate, Level 5 is equivalent to a Foundation Degree or a Higher National Diploma, Level 6 is equivalent to a Bachelors’ Degree and Level 7 is equivalent to a Masters’ Degree).
• Within the Higher Apprenticeship starts above, Degree Apprenticeships (Level 6 and 7) accounted for 18.0% of Q1 starts.

OPPORTUNITIES TO APPLY FOR APPRENTICESHIPS TO BE MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH UCAS

On 6 February, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan announced that from September this year, the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) will begin to expand its service to include information on apprenticeships. Then, from 2024, students will be able to apply for apprenticeship places through the UCAS website, in the same way as they can apply for undergraduate places. According to UCAS, almost half of people that use the UCAS website say they would consider taking a higher apprenticeship as an alternative to taking a degree. To address this, UCAS says it will publish the same apprenticeship vacancy information as that available on the government’s ‘Find an Apprenticeship’ website. UCAS also says that apprenticeship vacancies will not just be an add-on with a link at the bottom of undergraduate course pages but will be fully integrated into its website, and that apprenticeship vacancies at all levels will be included on the UCAS website, and not just degree and other higher apprenticeships.

DFE ANNOUNCES INCREASE IN APPRENTICESHIP BURSARY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN CARE OR CARE LEAVERS

On 2 February, the DfE published details of a £200 million programme designed ‘to transform children’s social care, with ambitious plans that put families at the heart of reform’. The programme underpins the government’s  Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy and part of the funding will be used to provide care leavers or those still in care aged 16-24 who start an apprenticeship with a £3,000 bursary. This is an increase from the £1,000 first made available in 2018. Employers will also be given a bursary of £1,000 to take on a young person in care, or a care leaver, as an apprentice. The DfE has announced that it will also allocate a further £24 million for post-16 pupil premium plus funding between 2023 and 2025 to support children age 16-18 in full-time education who are looked after, or in local authority care.

SKY PARTNERS WITH MULTIVERSE TO TRANSFER £1 MILLION UNSPENT APPRENTICESHIP LEVY TO OTHER EMPLOYERS

A significant amount of the apprenticeship levy paid by employers goes unspent each year. However, businesses that pay the levy and have unspent levy funding are able to transfer this to other employers to fund additional apprenticeships. In a recent example of this, Sky has recently transferred £1 million of its unspent apprenticeship levy to the apprenticeship provider Multiverse, to help employers looking to offer digital, data and technical apprenticeships within their workforce. The need for these apprenticeships is supported by research conducted by the Open University mentioned on the UK Tech News website which says that almost nine in ten (88%) organisations in the UK are facing a shortage of staff with digital skills. Multiverse is part owned by Euan (son of Tony) Blair. For those who might be curious about the origin and nature of the arrangement between Sky and Multiverse, although Euan Blair is Rupert Maxwell’s godson, Mr Maxwell divested himself of his shareholding in Sky in 2018.

DFE DATA SHOWS THAT ONLY ONE THIRD OF THE TRAINEESHIP BUDGET FOR 2020/21 AND 2022/23 WAS SPENT

Traineeships were first introduced in 2013 to provide pre-employment training and unpaid work experience for eligible 16 to 24-year-old. Traineeships were designed to last between six weeks and one year and were intended to be the government’s ‘flagship’ pre-employment programme. However, last month the DfE announced that it was ending the scheme because recruitment to the programme was consistently below target. Data on first quarter Traineeship starts (Q1-August to October 2022) published by the DfE on 26 January shows that there were just 4,600 enrolments, a fall of 17% compared with Q1 last year. For the whole of 2021/22 there were just 15,500 Traineeship starts compared with a target of 43,000. The latest DfE data covering both 2020/21 and 2021/22 shows that only a third of the Traineeship budget was spent, with £230 million being returned to the Treasury. The DfE has said that from August 2023, traineeships (and presumably any associated funding) will be incorporated into other 16-19 programmes and skills programmes funded through non-devolved adult education budgets (AEBs).

ESFA LAUNCHES 2023/24 ADULT EDUCATION BUDGET (AEB) PROCUREMENT PROCESS

On 6 February, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) launched the bidding process for procuring contracts for course provision funded through the non-devolved AEB in 2023/24. The tender document states that £63 million is being made available for qualification based AEB contracts, along with £12 million for contracts funded through the Free Courses for Jobs scheme.

The tender document shows that overall maximum annual contract values have been reduced, as follows:

• For existing providers, the maximum contract has been reduced from £3 million to £2.5 million.
• For existing sub-contractors, the maximum contract has been reduced from £2 million to £1.5 million.
• For new providers, the maximum contract has been reduced from £1 million to £750,000.

The ESFA says that providers submitting bids for AEB contracts will be subject to financial health checks. Colleges are required to have a financial health rating of at least ‘requires improvement’ and other providers must be rated as at least ‘satisfactory’. The ESFA also says that for 2023/24, providers that are awarded AEB contracts will be subject to more robust contract management. Funding will be removed from under-performing providers and reallocated to other providers. Bids must reach the ESFA by 6 March and providers that bid will learn if they have been successful in mid-June.

DFE PUBLISHES DATA ON ADULT PARTICIPATION IN FE AND SKILLS IN ENGLAND IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2022/23

On 26 January, the DfE published data on adult (19+) further education (FE) and skills participation in England during the first quarter (Q1) of the 2022/23 academic year (August to October 2022). Main points are as follows:

• 1,056,530 adult learners were on FE and skills courses ranging from Entry Level to Level 4 and above. This is a 4.3% increase on Q1 last year.
• Within this increase, there was an 11% increase in adults taking a full Level 4 or above course and a 7% increase in the number the number of adults taking a course at below Level 2.
• Against this, the number of learners on full Level 2 courses decreased by 9% and the numbers on full Level 3 courses decreased by 5%.
• There were 481,800 adult (19+) learners on government funded education and training courses, an increase of 5.7%. As an example of growth, the number of adults starting  Free Courses for Jobs programmes almost doubled from 5,080 to 10,670.
• 119,200 adults were participating in Community Learning, a 4.1% increase on Q1 2021/22.

BAKER DEARING TRUST SEEKS TO EMBED 14-18 UTC ‘SLEEVES’ IN 11-18 SCHOOLS

The Baker Dearing Educational Trust, regulates and supports around 50 University Technical Colleges (UTCs) across England. The Trust is now seeking DfE support to introduce a new 14-18 ‘technical education pathway’ based on the UTC model that will be delivered through what the Trust calls a UTC ‘Sleeve’. In a move that some observers describe as being a bit like a cuckoo laying its eggs in other birds’ nests, the Trust says that UTC Sleeves will be established within existing 11-18 secondary schools and will provide pupils in the school with an alternative 14-18 technical education curriculum. At the 14-16 stage, the UTC Sleeves ‘will offer an integrated path of technical study rather than a discrete selection of subjects’ preparing pupils to take T-Levels in the 16-18 stage. The Trust says that UTC Sleeves will also ‘replicate the vital characteristics of a UTC curriculum, including employer-based projects which aim to develop employability skills such as team work, communication, resilience, and adherence to professional standards’. The Trust goes on to say that the design of the curriculum offered within a UTC Sleeve will be informed by a board comprised of representatives from local companies and will reflect skills specialisms identified as being in short supply in the Local Skills Improvement Plan. Schools must apply to have a UTC Sleeve and meet strict criteria before being allowed to have one. These criteria include being part of a strong Multi Academy Trust (MAT) that already has a UTC graded as ‘good’ within it, (or that they can form a close partnership with a ‘good’ local UTC outside the MAT). They also need to show that they have support from local employers and university partners.

The Trust says that the DfE will need to provide up to £100,000 for each ‘Sleeve’ to pay for start-up costs and up to £1 million in capital funding for specialist equipment and to pay for physical changes to the host school’s infrastructure. The DfE will also need to provide future recurrent revenue funding. This will be supported by subsidies from the host schools’ mainstream budgets and by contributions and donations from local employers. The Trust calling on the DfE to fund 10 UTC Sleeve pilots in host schools and consultation document on this has been produced by the Trust. Interested parties are asked to return their responses to the consultation  by 28 February via an online form available on the Trust’s website.

ANOTHER UTC CLOSES

The DfE has confirmed that Watford UTC will close as a result of low student demand. The UTC has capacity for 600 students, but the currently only has 54. The UTC has tried to increase its student numbers by securing the agreement of the DfE and the Baker Dearing Trust to lower its entry age to 11. It has also tried to improve its financial viability by seeking to join a MAT. But despite its best efforts, the UTC will close at the end of this academic year, leaving staff members facing an uncertain future.

Meanwhile, despite more than half of UTCs currently operating at less than two-thirds of their student number capacity, the Baker Dearing Trust wants to open a further three new UTCs, two of which are included in the most recent round (Wave 15) of Free School bids. (See here for the criteria used by the DfE in assessing the bids).

THE NATIONAL COLLEGE FOR ADVANCED TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURE LAUNCHES CONSULTATION ON ITS FUTURE

The National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NACTI) opened in 2018 and was formerly known as the College for High-Speed Rail. The college has campuses in Birmingham and Doncaster and offers apprenticeships and other training courses at Levels 3 to 6. The college has experienced ongoing problems in meeting its student recruitment targets and this has impacted on its financial viability. In an attempt to address this, on 29 April 2021 the college dissolved its corporation and was absorbed into Birmingham University. But despite this, the college has continued to struggle to meet student number targets and to achieve independent financial viability. On 12 February the college launched a consultation on a proposal to cease direct delivery and to offer courses through partnerships with employers and other training organisations. This academic year, the college has recruited just 61 apprentices, and the college has warned its 50 staff that they are at risk of being made redundant. The consultation closes on 30 March.

ONS DATA SHOWS MORE PEOPLE ARE ENTERING OR RETURNING TO WORK

Since the end of Covid lockdowns, many employers have reported that they have struggled to recruit workers. However, the latest employment data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows some improvement in that between October and December 2022, a record number of people moved out of ‘economic inactivity’ (defined as people not looking for work) and into employment. Employment rates at the end of 2022 stood at 75.6% driven by mainly by young people aged 16-24 entering employment and an increase in the number of older people aged 50-64 leaving retirement and returning to work. The ONS says that this may be partly due to the rising cost of living and partly due to increased wages offered by employers, which have increased by an average of 7.3% in the private sector and 4.2% in the public sector (although both increases are still well below current consumer price index inflation of 10.1%). The ONS data also shows that unemployment rose by 0.1% to 3.7% in the period from October to December, and that employers are scaling back their hiring intentions, probably, says the ONS, because employers think that the economy will remain stagnant or slip into recession this year. However, despite this, it seems that employment rates have continued to rise, with provisional ONS data for January 2023 showing a further monthly increase of 102,000 in employment compared with December 2022, taking the total number of people in employment to more than 30.0 million.

COULD SKILLS BOOTCAMPS BE THE ANSWER TO MEETING SOME LABOUR SHORTAGES?

During 2021, pandemic lockdowns prevented prospective Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) drivers taking an HGV test. There was also a surge in online shopping which exacerbated the shortage of HGV lorry drivers and raised the prospect of empty supermarket shelves and severe supply chain difficulties. Haulage firms were forced to offer much higher wages, along with generous signing-on bonuses and better working conditions in order to entice HGV drivers away from their existing employers.

At the time, the Road Haulage Association (RHA) estimated that there was a shortage of 100,000 drivers. To help address the shortage, in September 2021 the government established a number of HGV driver Skills Bootcamps. Training providers with the necessary expertise were funded to deliver 12-16 weeks of intensive training designed to get prospective HGV drivers sufficiently competent, tested and out on the road as soon as possible. Initial government targets were for 3,000 HGV extra drivers trained via the Skills Bootcamps, supplemented by a further 1,000 HGV drivers trained locally through devolved AEB funding.

DfE data published on 8 December shows that these targets were exceeded, with 4,740 HGV drivers trained at Skills Bootcamps during this period. Also, the number of HGV driving tests taken increased to around 96,000 compared to an average of around 72,600 in the five years prior to the beginning of the pandemic. It has been suggested that prospective HGV drivers were attracted to the HGV Skills Bootcamps because of the relative speed with which they could obtain an HGV licence. HGV driver training was (and still is) available via adult apprenticeships, but these need to be of a minimum duration of 12 months and require participants to take the compulsory maths and English functional skills elements, which may be a deterrent to some. And while apprenticeship providers have to go through a rigorous process to be entered on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers, no such equivalent registration is required for Skills Bootcamps. If HGV Skills Bootcamps really have helped to quickly ameliorate the shortage of HGV drivers, some observers are asking if short periods of intensive training made available through Skills Bootcamps (or something similar) might help address some of the other acute labour shortages facing employers.

FE SECTOR CONTINUES TO BE AT SEVERE RISK OF CYBER-ATTACKS

Research carried out last year by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport revealed that in the previous 12 months, 88% of FE institutions had experienced a cyber-breach or attack. The aim of the perpetrators was to extort money from colleges, before selling on the data via the dark web. The reports says that these attacks invariably impacted negatively, and in some cases disastrously, on the colleges affected. College leaders are well aware that robust cyber security is needed, not just to stop the attacks from occurring, but also to alert institutions that a breach has occurred, but the research says that the FE education sector is particularly vulnerable, partly due to its complex (and often outdated) IT environment, and partly due to its ongoing budget constraints. A typical FE IT infrastructure, says the report, will have thousands of devices, including laptops, desk top computers, mobile phones and servers, usually located on several different college sites. It is also difficult for colleges to prevent malware being inadvertently (or in some cases maliciously) being internally uploaded by students and staff from their own devices, and to identify suspicious developments that might indicate an external attack. In addition, whilst those perpetrating external cyber-attacks continue to develop ever more sophisticated techniques to exploit cyber weaknesses, tight college budgets mean that sufficiently robust firewalls may be unaffordable. This is exacerbated by college IT teams being typically small and team members having a wide range of different responsibilities and areas to manage. Ironically, sometimes teams are so small and stretched, colleges are often forced to rely on more expensive outsourcing for their cyber security support.

PRIME MINISTER PROPOSES INCREASING THE NUMBER OF HOURS INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS CAN WORK

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering plans to help address labour shortages and help achieve economic growth in the UK by allowing international students attending Britain’s universities to do more paid work alongside their studies. Mr Sunak is said to want to raise the current cap from 20 hours a week during term time to 30 hours a week, or even remove the cap entirely. By way of background, the latest ONS data shows that there are 1.3 million vacancies, and students could be a way of filling some of these vacancies, particularly in areas such as hospitality and retail, which are reporting acute staff shortages.  Some university vice chancellors, particularly those hoping to increase their recruitment of foreign students, have welcomed Mr Sunak’s proposals as ‘positive news’ and say that. if implemented, it will help overseas students struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. However, others have expressed strong opposition to the proposals, saying that if students spend too many hours working it will impact negatively on their studies.

There are around 680,000 overseas students in the UK, and the current cap on the number of hours they can work is apparently regarded as a way of preventing the abuse of student visas as a means of circumventing immigration rules. The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has drawn attention to the fact that international students made up 476,000 of the 1.1 million migrants who arrived in the UK in the year to last June. She says that she wants to reduce the number of foreign students and their dependents coming to the UK (particularly those coming for supposedly ‘low level’ courses) as a means of reducing net migration below the current high levels. Ms Braverman is also proposing to reduce the time international students can stay on in the UK after they complete their studies from two years (on a Graduate Visa) down to six months. This is thought likely to result in tensions between Ms Braverman and Mr Sunak. Ms Braverman is also likely to find herself in conflict with the most senior civil servant at the Home Office, who is Sir Matthew Rycroft, the Permanent Under Secretary of State. Listing his main priorities for Home Office staff, Sir Matthew says he wants to ‘expand global talent visa routes’, but omits to mention Ms Braverman’s key policy objective of reducing levels of migration to the UK.

DFE INTRODUCES BILL TO LIMIT THE AMOUNTS THAT CAN BE CHARGED FOR MODULAR AND FLEXIBLE HE COURSES

The Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022 amended the definition of an HE course to include shorter and more flexible modular courses at Levels 4 to 6. To support students on these courses the government has introduced a Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE), which comes into effect in 2025. Students will be able to access loan funding to pay for the equivalent of four years of part-time flexible post-18 study not constrained to a traditional academic year. One of the key aims of the LLE, says the DfE, is to help arrest the decline in the numbers of part-time students studying higher level courses and to boost much needed higher level technical training.

To prevent students being overcharged for these courses, on 9 February the DfE introduced a new Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Bill which, if/when enacted, will limit the amount providers can charge students studying HE modules and short courses to an amount proportionately equivalent to the current fee cap of £9,250 per year for full-time undergraduate courses. The Bill also proposes a new system of course credits and gives the secretary of state powers to set fee limits for those credits. Earlier this month, the DfE published the an impact assessment on the proposals in the Bill, the conclusions of which suggest that HE providers that target and expand into this market could see an increase to their revenue from fees. However, research published last October by Phoenix Insights in a report entitled ‘Never too late to learn’ found that although the idea of lifelong learning was popular, the idea of incurring tens of thousands of pounds in loan debt was not.

UCAS PUBLISHES DATA ON 2023 APPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY PLACES

On 9 February UCAS published data which shows that by the January 2023 deadline:

• 596,590 UK people of all ages applied for a university place in the 2023/24 academic year. This is a 2.3% decrease on the numbers applying at the same point last year.
• A total of 314,660 UK 18-year-old school and college leavers applied for a university place. This is a decrease of 1.8% compared with the numbers applying at the same point last year.
• 50.4% of all UK 18-year-old female school and colleges leavers applied for a university place. This was a decrease of 3% compared with the numbers applying at the same point last year.
• 35.6% of all UK 18-year-old males applied for places. This is a decrease of 1.1% on January 2022.
• The number of UK mature (19+) applicants for university places decreased by 14%.
• There was an overall increase of 3% in the number of foreign students applying for a UK university place, with big increases in the number of applications from Indian and Nigerian students for places. However, the number of Chinese students applying for places decreased by 4%.

Commenting on the figures, UCAS said:

• With reference to the contraction in applications for university from women, the courses seeing the biggest fall in applications are in teaching and nursing. Applications for nursing courses are 18.6% lower than in January 2022, while applications for teaching courses are down by 15.6%. These courses typically attract more women than men.
• The current high employment rates may have resulted in more young people entering work rather than applying for university places. UCAS says that inquiries on its website show that the interest in higher apprenticeships has risen by 8.7% compared with January last year.

And DataHE, a firm that (according to its website) uses advanced computer-based analysis to help inform universities and UCAS on data trends, said:

• Demand for university places during the pandemic was unprecedented and so a slight recalibration in the number of applicants was to be expected. This is particularly the case in respect of applications for nursing and healthcare degrees, both of which saw exceptional growth as students were inspired to join the frontline fight against the pandemic.
• Current high childcare costs (something more likely to impact women than men) is likely to have reduced the number of female applicants.
• Many universities claim that they have been forced to cut back on intakes of domestic students despite high levels of demand for places. This has been caused by a combination of an inability to raise tuition fees and high levels of inflation, which has forced some universities to focus on recruiting higher fee-paying international students at the expense of offering places to UK students.

HIGHER EDUCATION (FREEDOM OF SPEECH) BILL PROVES TO BE CONTENTIOUS

On 8 February, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill completed its third reading in the House of Lords and passed into the ‘consideration of amendments’ stage. The main aim of the proposed legislation is to give academics and students the right to sue HE institutions if their statutory right to free speech has been breached. In cases where academics have been forced to resign their posts after being ‘cancelled’ for expressing contentious views (for example, Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor at Sussex University who resigned after what she described as a ‘witch-hunt’ because of her views on transgender issues), the Bill will also allow those affected to seek monetary compensation. The Bill is also intended to be a response to external speakers and organisations being ‘no platformed’ because an HE institution’s ‘monoculture’ is incompatible with their views and opinions. Concerns have been expressed that some universities are engaging in ‘quiet no-platforming’. This involves the pre-emptive cancelling by placing people (or organisations) on a list of those that should not be invited to speak because of fear of causing a controversy. The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) says that this is now a more pervasive problem than traditional no-platforming. This is confirmed by research carried out on behalf of HEPI and published last October in a report entitled, No Platform: Speaker Events at University Debating Unions (HEPI Report 153), which provides a statistical analysis of bias and no-platforming in planned speaking events.

The government argues that the proposed legislation is needed to ‘secure the necessary cultural change needed on campus’. However, this view has been strongly opposed by members of the House of Lords, university vice-chancellors and the University and Colleges Union (UCU). Members of the House of Lords, including some of the government’s own peers, voted in December to remove the ‘breach of statutory tort’ in the Bill that would allow academics to seek compensation in the courts. Universities and unions have thrown their collective weight behind the Lords and argue that the risk of being sued would create a huge administrative burden and would place staff engaged in no-platforming in a vulnerable position.

The government has tried to offer a compromise by tabling its own amendment to the Bill which says that academics and students will only be able sue for breach of their statutory right to free speech ‘as a last resort’, and would first have to pursue this through the lengthy complaints procedure of the university concerned and that of the Office for Students (OfS). However, this has resulted in a backlash from academics who have been cancelled, who say that the amendment will make the legislation ‘toothless’. They have therefore called on the government to restore the ‘statutory tort’ in full, saying the threat of litigation is the only way to force universities take breaches of the right to freedom of speech seriously.

UNIVERSITY STAFF TAKE INDUSTRIAL ACTION

Following an initial refusal of university employers to meet staff demands over pay, conditions and pensions, the University and College Union (UCU) took strike action on 3 days this month. University staff were also expected to walk out on a further 7 days in late February and early March. However, on 18 February, employers made improved pay offer for lower paid staff and offered to review the salaries of all university staff. In response, UCU suspended the proposed action, but reserved the right to resume strike action on 5 days later in March if insufficient progress was made on agreeing a ‘meaningful’ pay rise, eliminating insecure employment practices such as temporary and zero-hours contracts, and addressing high workloads. UCU also want employers to reverse the increase in pensions contributions and reduction in future benefits. UCU says that the initial valuation of the pension fund showing it to be £14.1 billion in deficit was ‘flawed’ because it took place at the start of the pandemic, ‘when global markets were crashing’. UCU claims that the scheme has more recently been found to have a surplus of £1.8 billion and is demanding that employers restore staff pension benefits. UCU has also pointed out that, collectively, universities have £44 billion in reserves.

Elsewhere, public sector workers (e.g. in the NHS, schools and the civil service) have refused accept the recommendations of their national pay review bodies for pay increases and are taking strike action. There is some evidence that the government is prepared to improve pay offers in response to this. FE colleges are now in the public sector too. But unlike in schools, where a pay increase is recommended by the School Teachers’ Pay Review Body and the government provides schools with additional funding to pay for it, there is no pay review body for FE staff and no additional money is provided by the government to fund a pay increase. Instead, colleges are expected to make pay awards from within their usually inadequate budgets. In recent years, most college staff have not received a cost of living pay award. Some have not seen any cash increase in their salaries at all. As might be expected, FE colleges unions are demanding a cost of living pay increase to restore staff salaries and some staff are prepared to take industrial action in support of this. The difference is that nobody in government, or elsewhere for that matter, seems to care all that much whether they strike or not.

AND FINALLY…

A college lecturer was amonishing his students for submitting assignments with numerous spelling errors. The students had produced their assignments on their laptops and PCs and the lecturer said that they should always run their work through the spellchecker before handing it in. In response, one of the students sent him the poem below and suggested he run it through his own spell checker to see how much of it would be corrected. To find out, you might like to run the poem through your own spell checker.

I halve a spelling checker. It came with my pea sea.

It plain lea marks for my revue, miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word, and weight four it two say,

weather eye am rite or wrung, it shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid, it nose bee fore two long.

And eye can put the error rite. It’s rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it, and I’m shore your pleased two know,

its let her perfect all the way. My spell check told me sew

Alan Birks – February 2023

As usual, the views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those held by Click.
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