higher education | FE Week

This is how to draw more HE students into FE

A personalised experience is the way to win over this emerging group of learners, writes Sali Midjek-Conway It’s more important than ever for FE colleges to think outside the traditional two-year post-16 pathway. Higher education is now facing huge changes and challenges to the way it operates. So what do we know about how higher education will […]

Make 2022 the year FE is unchained at last

FE is the best place for adults to upskill – but it needs lobbyists in parliament, writes Andy Forbes This year, the FE sector has a real chance of moving centre stage. Why this year, you ask, after so many frustrating years of flatline funding and piecemeal initiatives? It’s a combination of things. Three things […]

The OfS is – mostly – correct to say colleges should work closely with schools

The benefits run both ways – but the OfS should not expect colleges to drive school improvement, writes Marion Plant “Universities and colleges have a moral duty to put their shoulder to the wheel of improving that wider community they sit within, and as both educational and civic institutions, improving attainment in our schools is […]

The FE Week Podcast: Plans for higher education, adult participation in FE and Ofsted

This week Shane is joined by three guests, to cover three particularly interesting topics: Ed Reza Schwitzer, former DfE civil servant, Sue Pember, adult education guru, and Catherine Sezen at the Association of Colleges. Has the government got it right with its plans to involve universities more in student outcomes? How can the sector drive […]

The immigration system is blocking FE learners from reaching HE

Colleges need to appoint a member of staff who understands migrant status issues, writes Vanessa Joshua “I came out with the second highest grade in my whole sixth-form cohort. So imagine not being able to go to university and everybody asking you, ‘Oh! What uni are you going to?’… Mentally, it has a big impact […]

Let’s have a collective post-18 system for HE and FE

The lifelong loan entitlement will fail if policy doesn’t remove other barriers for students, writes Tim Blackman Colleges Week marks the critical role colleges play in education and training, bridging skills gaps and equipping students of all ages to thrive in the workforce. The Open University (OU) has a long history of links with the […]

If colleges are not careful, HE will muscle in on their territory

The FE sector is already beleaguered, but market forces will soon see universities trying to carve themselves out a bigger slice of the pie, writes Ewart Keep A research project about to be published by the FE Trust for Leadership on the marketisation of further education points to the growing competition that colleges face from […]

Colleges recognised for outstanding higher education provision

Two colleges have received gold medals recognising their outstanding higher education provision in the latest Teaching Excellence Framework ratings. Sparsholt College and Myerscough College both received the highest possible rating, meaning they deliver “consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes”. They are among 46 colleges to have received recognition for the quality of their HE provision […]

HE has a HESA – why can’t FE have a FESA?

A “data deficit” is responsible for the persistent failure of UK skills policy, explains Andy Norman, who wants to establish a new FE statistics agency While it may seem like the skills discourse is reaching a political crescendo, appreciation of its importance is really nothing new. Researchers and politicians alike have waxed lyrical about the […]