Birkbeck win on part-time study in HE Bill
The importance of part-time study has been explicitly recognised by the Government in a change to the Higher Education & Research Bill approved in the House of Lords last night.
The importance of part-time study has been explicitly recognised by the Government in a change to the Higher Education & Research Bill approved in the House of Lords last night.
Peers voted to accept a Government amendment to the Bill which will require the new universities regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), to promote choice in the way university courses are taught, specifically including part-time study, distance learning and accelerated courses.
Birkbeck welcomes this move, as the College has been working hard to gain explicit recognition of part-time study in the Bill, and to raise awareness of the importance of flexible learning among MPs and peers as the Bill progresses through parliament.
Speaking during Monday night’s debate, Viscount Younger, the Government’s higher education spokesman in the House of Lords, paid tribute to Birkbeck President Baroness Joan Bakewell as a long-time ‘passionate supporter’ of part-time study and non-traditional students. He said the new change to the Bill explicitly recognised her view that part-time study and flexible learning would ‘play a big part in the future of our society’.
He added: “[This amendment] makes it clear that choice among a diverse range of higher education provision is part of the OfS’s duty to promote greater student choice.”
However, a proposal supported by Birkbeck and put forward by Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Sue Garden to specify that experts in part-time, adult and distance learning be included on the Board of the new OfS was not included in the changes agreed by peers.
Proposing the amendment Baroness Garden said: “…It is important not to neglect the considerable part played in higher education by those who are not following full-time, three-year courses. Part-time study, we know, has been in decline since 2008 by a combination of factors: for instance, restrictions placed on equivalent or lower level qualifications (ELQs); and the introduction of higher tuition fees in 2012 for part-time undergraduate courses.
“Part-time adult and distance learning provides diverse opportunities for many people unable or unwilling to access full-time undergraduate programmes, enabling them to progress their learning and to take opportunities for development that would not otherwise be available to them. Given that this valuable provision is so easily overlooked, it is important that there should be a voice and specific representation on the OfS board. “
The proposal had been strongly supported by Baroness Tessa Blackstone, a former Master of Birkbeck, and by Baroness Bakewell, who said that people living longer today meant that “part-time education, with opportunities to restructure your life and have secondary, portfolio careers—possibly several, within the century of a lifetime—is really important, and should be taken on board throughout this Bill, which serves very much the existing demographic.”
During the debate peers agreed to proposals to allow universities to offer two-year accelerated courses at fees up to the tuition fee limit of three-year courses.
A new change to the Bill will also enable the automatic registration of students as voters, while peers also voted to break the link between how universities are ranked in the new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and their ability to charge higher fees or recruit more students.
Members of the House of Lords will continue to debate further amendments to the Bill this week and next week, before the Bill returns to the House of Commons for its final stages.
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