71 courses face the axe in favour of wave 4 T Levels

Over 70 courses taken by more than 32,000 students are set to be cut by the government in effort to make way for the fourth wave of T Levels.

Popular creative media practice and animal management BTECs will be among those to have their funding withdrawn from August 1, 2025, the Department for Education announced today.

Officials outlined a provisional list of 71 qualifications to be defunded after they were deemed to overlap with wave four T Levels, which are being rolled out in or before August 2024 in five subjects: agriculture and land management; animal care; craft and design; legal; and media, broadcast and production.

The at-risk courses with the most enrolments are Pearson’s BTEC level 3 national extended diploma in creative media practice and Pearson’s BTEC Level 3 national 540 diploma in creative media practice. 

The pair drew in nearly 6,500 student enrolments between them in the 2021/22 academic year.

The government launched a defunding process of level 3 qualifications that “overlap” with T Levels in 2022. It previously confirmed plans to axe 134 courses from August 2024 that compete with waves 1 and 2 T Levels, and a further 85 courses that compete with wave 3 will have their funding withdrawn a year later.

Officials are moving ahead with the controversial defunding plans despite prime minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement that he wants to replace T Levels with a new baccalaureate-style qualification for 16- to- 19-year-olds over the next decade – the Advanced British Standard (ABS).

The Labour Party has however promised to pause and review the reforms if it wins the upcoming general election.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, slammed the government’s “misguided reforms”.

“The Protect Student Choice campaign has warmly welcomed the commitment made by Labour and the Liberal Democrats to pause and review the government’s plan to scrap BTECs, but today’s announcement shows that the government intends to plough ahead with its misguided reforms,” he said. 

“We’d like to see the current three-route model of A levels, BTECs and T Levels remain available to young people now and into the future.”

Catherine Sezen, director of education policy at the Association of Colleges, said: “We once again urge the government to pause defunding and undertake a review of the decisions made on qualifications for the future. The Department for Education must address the sector’s valid concerns about the impact on students and deliverability of T levels at scale.”

Today’s axe list shows four qualifications offered by Pearson and City & Guilds in animal management will be replaced by the animal care and management T Level. 

The courses, which include Pearson BTEC Level 3 foundation and extended diploma in animal management, had nearly 10,000 students enrolled.

Pearson is the most affected awarding organisation, with 23 qualifications due to be axed. City & Guilds will have funding for 21 qualifications removed and RSL has 14 courses affected, all in the media and communication space.

Meanwhile, 11 qualifications in the list had zero enrolments. These include City & Guilds level 3 diploma in work-based trees and timber and IMI level 3 certificate in land-based technology (VRQ).

Other affected awarding bodies include OCR, NCFE, SEG, IMI, Open College Network West Midlands, and RHS. 

Female learners, white students and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities will be most affected by the funding removal, according to an equalities impact assessment published by DfE today.

Awarding bodies are able to submit appeals to save their qualifications from today. The appeal process closes on March 26.

The DfE also announced today that the planned hair and beauty T Level has been scrapped (full story here).

Kewin said this is “another example of the chaos and confusion that has characterised the government’s reform of level 3 qualifications”.

He also condemned the government for “consistently refusing to publish meaningful data on student performance or destinations” for T Levels while rolling out the changes.

“Just 15,000 young people are currently studying a T Level despite £1.8 billion of public investment since 2019. It is also a flagship that will not be sailing for much longer, given the government’s plan to replace it with the Advanced British Standard,” he added.

Skills minister Robert Halfon said: “We remain fully committed to the roll out of T Levels, which will form the backbone of the prime minister’s ambitious ABS and help us build a skills and apprenticeship nation.”

Provisional list of qualifications overlapping with wave 4 T Levels