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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, is absolutely right. But it is also perfectly appropriate for somebody on the other side of the House to note that there are differences on the Conservative Benches. That is all that I was doing. I have some sympathy with what both speakers on the opposition Benches said, because I am a little concerned about another reorganisation, and I see the case for ensuring that local interests are taken into account. However, I think on balance that it is the right time to move towards a regional structure. Perhaps the Minister will tell the House what savings will be made by moving down this route. I presume that there will be considerable staff and other savings. The new regional councils will have to work hard to ensure that they consider the range of interests from different localities in the areas that they cover. My one reservation concerning the LSC is the proposal for a power to establish strategy-making bodies. Does the Minister believe that there is any likelihood of strategy- making bodies existing outside London? Have any discussions taken place in any other regions? How confident is the Minister that there will not be constant friction in London between the strategy body chaired by the Mayor and the London regional Learning and Skills Council? Pages 5 and 6 of the Explanatory Notes read a little like a desperate attempt to anticipate possible areas of conflict. Can the Minister put his hand on his heart and say whether he or any other rational person with strong convictions about vocational education would want to chair an important regional committee without the power to determine its own strategy? It looks like a rather messy political compromise. It would have been sensible either to go a little further in handing over powers to the Mayor, or to leave the system in London the same as it will be in other parts of the country. I turn now to my main concern: the new powerin Clause 19 for FE colleges to award their own foundation degrees. My opposition to the proposal has absolutely nothing to do with a dismissive viewof the FE sector. I believe passionately in further education colleges and their importance to our economy and education system. In the four years I spent as a Minister with responsibility for FE, the Government tried to raise its profile, strengthen its operations and obtain extra resources for it. That, incidentally, included an important new role for FE in teaching foundation degrees. What the Minister said indicates that we are currently asking a great deal of our FE colleges, including vocational courses for 14 to 16 year-olds released from school; academic provision for 16 to 19 year-olds of GCSEs and A-levels; full time and part time vocational skills programmes for 16 to 19s; adult programmes of many different kinds; basic skills for both young people and adults with poor literacy and numeracy; engagement with work-based learning at many levels, as well as working with universitiesto provide foundation degrees and other HE qualifications. The Minister kindly referred to the fact that I was responsible for introducing foundation degrees. I never anticipated yet further widening the role of FE colleges so that they acquired from the Privy Council degree-awarding powers. Such expansion risks mission overstretch. A university is, moreover, defined by its degree-awarding powers. FE colleges are not universities, nor should they aspire to take on the role of universities. They already have, as I indicated, many other vital roles. We must try to avoid muddle and confusion about their roles and those of universities. To imply that not many FE colleges may make use of the power and they must be high performing—however that is defined; I am uncertain what the Minister will say about it—simply will not wash. There is a very important issue of principle here. What puzzles me most about the insertion of Clause 19 is what it seeks to remedy. Perhaps the Minister can enlighten the House further on that. What is wrong with the present system of partnership between universities and FE colleges whereby they work together to develop degrees, with universities validating them and offering progression to honours degrees? Can he give the House examples of colleges failing to find a university to work with them and to validate their foundation degrees? I would be amazed if there were any such cases other than where there were serious problems with standards. In a small number of cases universities have withdrawn validation because of poor quality; but as high standards are vital in the establishment of foundation degrees, that is exactly what should happen. After all, the DfES’ ““Foundation Degrees”” website states that foundations degrees are, "““validated by universities to ensure that they meet the standards of Higher Education””." That is quite so. They are HE qualifications and were always envisaged as such. If there are instances in which current arrangements do not work as well as they should, surely it is better to find ways to make sure they improve, rather than change the whole system and undermine the many cases where they work well. As other speakers have said, foundation degrees are still at an early stage in their struggle to gain acceptance among employers and potential students. Having been party to their invention I really want them to succeed; so I beg the Government not to do anything that will jeopardise this important route to widening participation, to progression and to employability achieved through working directly with employers. After a slow start they are now growing faster and acquiring the status they deserve. That validation by universities helps to secure that status. While being wrong in principle, Clause 19 also has a number of unintended consequences, as the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, and other noble Lords have said. I do not want to whinge about lack of consultation. I have sat too often where the Minister is sitting to know that that does not get you very far. However, it is always better to ask around before introducing a new power of this kind, if only to become aware of the consequences. The most worrying aspect is that the clause threatens partnership arrangements between FE and HE. Many universities have spent a great deal of time and effort in developing collaborative relationships with colleges, including allocating to them their own HEFCE numbers for foundation degrees. What will happen next? Will universities have to compete rather than collaborate with their partner colleges, which are using the universities’ HEFCE numbers; or will universities have to withdraw these allocations from the colleges and try to devise ways of teaching their own foundation degrees, or, failing that, leave the places unfilled? Surely the Government do not want that to happen. What will happen to the guaranteed progression to honours degrees that the present system offers? This proposal is immensely disruptive and provides no obvious advantage. What will Ministers say when they host the next stage of the Bologna negotiations in London next year? There is a real danger that they will be criticised for devaluing degrees. The UK HE brand couldbe damaged and our position weakened in these negotiations. We should take that seriously. The noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Bolton, said that FE colleges are over-regulated, with 17 different bodies overseeing them. I have sympathy with that view. This clause will introduce yet another regulator for FE colleges, the QAA. It will do nothing to resolve what the Foster report said about over-regulation. What will the relationship be between this Bill when enacted and the 2004 Act? It would be helpfulif the Minister replied to that. If FE colleges areto validate their own foundation degrees and presumably have their own HE places, will they set their own fees and, if so, will they be subject to OFFA agreements? If so, that would impose another regulator. I will leave other speakers to elaborate further on the threats that this change poses to the relationships between higher education and further education and to the established boundaries between the two sectors and their regulation and inspection. I end by asking the Government to think again and, having thought about it, to abandon this last-minute addition to the Bill. It will create more problems than it solvesand it leaves many vice-chancellors and their senior colleagues who support the Government’s aims in establishing foundation degrees deeply concerned.