With the opening of a new parliament and the King’s speech this week, there are high expectations of the thirty-five bills likely to be announced. However, the low profile of students and Higher Education in Labour’s election campaign and manifesto means the plight of the students might be lost in the turmoil. This is a message to the government not to bypass the students and universities in the next parliament. The status quo is the road to disaster and reform is needed urgently.
The government will lay out its plans this week with around thirty-five bills likely to emerge. The focus will be on economic growth as the foundation for wider plans. Education will feature and a new education bill that concentrates on early education and schools is expected. This is of course the right approach; however, the role of students, colleges and universities should not be left out.
The House of Lords is scheduled to debate education on Friday, and it is hoped that they can consider wider reforms to universities and student support. In anticipation of this, the House of Lords library has produced a briefing in the King’s Speech 2024: Education that offers a ready guide to what they might expect.
Fairness for students; bring back maintenance grants.
The government must not forget the situation in which increasing numbers of students find themselves. The stark reality is that a ‘two-tier’ system is operating across most universities. The precious currency of this system is ‘time’. Students with family support have better accommodation, food and resources in general. This translates into more time for studying under less stress. But the other students are burdened with part-time jobs and commuting. The reality is that in 2024 56% of students worked part-time during term time, many 20+ hours per week at the expense of their attainment and success. TEFS has raised this inherent unfairness many times (see links below this post), and more recently with, ‘More students in jobs as fewer travel first class on the university experience train’.
It is only in the last year that there has been more formal acknowledgement of the long standing issue with the incoming Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson saying this to Laura Kuenssberg back in January,
The only way to address time lost to part-time jobs is to simply restore maintenance grants and increase the sums available in maintenance loans. There is no other solution.
Student loan repayments and a levy for graduates and employers.
Phillipson noted that she wanted a more progressive repayment system that did not disadvantage low and middle earners. The promise that students would repay less was also clearly indicated. However, it is still uncertain how this might happen. The manifesto stated that,
“The current higher education funding settlement does not work for the taxpayer, universities, staff, or students. Labour will act to create a secure future for higher education and the opportunities it creates across the UK. We will work with universities to deliver for students and our economy”.
TEFS believes that students and employers should be involved, and a fairer progressive funding system put in place. Those who benefit the most should contribute and the idea of a graduate levy on National Insurance is the easiest to administer. This would mean dividing the costs between graduates, their employers and wider society. It would be fairer and inherently progressive as well as protecting the system from inflation by tracking graduate pay (see the latest in TEFS 10th May 2024 ‘Funding students and Universities: a graduate National Insurance Levy is gaining traction’).
Post-sixteen education, social engineering and flexible routes to university.
The Labour manifesto addressed this with a pledge to,
“Continue to support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university”.
Also to establish Skills England to,
“Bring together business, training providers and unions with national and local government to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver Labour’s industrial strategy”.
The problem is the last government has created a total ‘dog’s breakfast’ of qualifications that confuses students. Particularly insidious is the promotion of T-levels as an alternative to A-levels. This is crude ‘social engineering’ that means students do either one or the other at age sixteen. It is designed to deter many less advantaged students from university by cutting of the route early on.
The existing BTECs are being phased out despite the possibility of studying for these alongside A-levels. A sizeable number of students enter university through this route and their options post-sixteen were kept open until recently. Yet, even the last government planned to end T-levels and replace them with a combined ‘Advanced British Standard’ before T-levels were fully rolled out! (TEFS 24th October 2024 ‘T-level confusion at the Department for Education: what is the end game?’).
Calls to retain T-levels in the recent report backed by David Sainsbury (aka Baron Sainsbury of Turville) have been met with stiff resistance from most quarters such as the Sixth Form Colleges Association. So much so that they should be dropped.
Instead, there should be a new flexible system built upon the existing BTECs with employer involvement. Indeed, the Labour manifesto hinted at a radical change in how the system works with,
“We recognise that UK higher education creates opportunity, is a world-leading sector in our economy, and supports local communities. To better integrate further and higher education, and ensure high-quality teaching, Labour’s post-16 skills strategy will set out the role for different providers, and how students can move between institutions, as well as strengthening regulation. We will act to improve access to universities and raise teaching standards”.
This implies a common integrated regulation covering both Further and Higher Education sectors. That would certainly be needed to join the dots.
Quality of courses and regulation.
The last government spent considerable time attacking universities and not addressing failing regulation by the Office for Students (OfS). TEFS has looked closely at how universities and students have lost confidence in them (see TEFS 5th October 2023 ‘End of term report: the Office for Students must do better’).
The rigour of university courses should be looked at urgently. With many more students losing time to jobs, universities are tailoring their timetables to cope with this. As a result, students have less contact with staff and the provision is eroding over time. The latest 2024 National Student Survey (NSS) results are a prime example of a mirage hiding the fundamental problems. Nothing is asked about time spent studying. Instead, there is the ‘option’ of asking about workload (B10. Workload) that expects “This course does not apply unnecessary pressure on me as a student”. It fails to consider the possibility of employers and staff being concerned about the rigour and attainment achieved. Fewer hours in study and contact with staff simply means less is being taught. This erosion must be reversed and more time to study for all students injected through fairer support.
What should happen.
The government needs to conduct a ‘root and branch’ review of how the sector works and put students at the front of the queue for reform. Regulation of both post-sixteen education and higher education must reflect a flexible approach for students who can retain choice as they progress. The current system is unfair, divisive and operates as two tiers. If it takes a new Act of Parliament to reform the finance and regulation, then so be it.
Footnote.
TEFS has particularly highlighted the situation with excessive hours in part-time jobs. The evidence of a ‘two tier’ system, dividing those with time and resources from those with little of both, is overwhelming as illustrated in these posts.
- ‘Student hardship: it’s going to be a cold winter’ July 15, 2022
- Students working in term-time: Overall pattern across the UK July 19, 2019
- The vast majority – one million – of students have no employment when in full-time studies. July 27, 2018
- Students working in term-time: Challenging the ‘disadvantage’ shibboleth August 09, 2019
- Students working in term-time: Commuter students and their working patterns August 23, 2019
- The cost of equalising the HE experience November 29, 2019
The author, Mike Larkin, retired from Queen’s University Belfast after 37 years teaching Microbiology, Biochemistry and Genetics. He remains optimistic.