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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chancellor of Coventry University. Many noble Lords will remember that, before it received university status, it was a famous polytechnic college that provided skilled workers for some of the finest engineering works in the country, both in wartime and after. It then received university status and now has some 18,000 students. It has been built up over time into a university that has to be reckoned with. It has a fine international reputation with students coming to it from various countries in the Far East and from elsewhere. I know from the awards ceremonies that I attend that those students welcome the chance to spend time in Coventry and to feel part of the university. At this stage in the debate we have covered a lot of ground. One listens with care to what people have said, and I do not wish to repeat what has already been said. I wholly support the opening statement by my noble friend Lady Morris and what has been said by speakers from this side of the House since. I would like to express my concern, and the concern of many who have approached me, about Clause 19. I will concentrate on that because the Minister referred to that clause in particular, and said that it was the Government’s intention to give further education colleges the power to award foundation degrees in their own name. What does that mean? What effect will it have on universities and honours degree courses? These questions are being tabled and are of concern to many at the moment. I could say that we would like the Government to drop this clause completely, or at least, as the Minister said, apply some stringent criteria before further education colleges are granted their powers. Therefore, I would like the Minister, in his final remarks, to spell out a little more clearly what these criteria would mean. I have four points of concern. First, if further education colleges are permitted to award degrees, surely the brand of UK universities will be weakened internationally. It could make it difficult for the United Kingdom to be part of the Bologna agreement on higher education. Secondly, does it not represent considerable ““mission drift”” for further education colleges, which were meant to be focused, as my noble friend Lord Baker said, on 14-to-19 level 2 or 3 provision, and adult level 3? Even foundation degrees, as I read and understand it, are level 4. Thirdly, the proposal potentially drives a coach and horses through the partnerships built up between further education colleges and universities, rather than bringing them together on the basis of mutual development routes for learners, which is surely what we would all like to see. On the basis of the proposals, they would appear to be competing head-to-head instead of collaborating, as surely they should. In these cases a market solution is not necessarily inthe best interests of learners or of widening the participation of students. It could jeopardise the lifelong learning networks, which HEFCE has set up and funded in each sub-region as consortia of universities and further education colleges. Finally, foundation degrees will be seen as further education qualifications, undermining their credibility with employers, where they are still a fragile new qualification. Like many others, I was surprised to learn that there appears to have been a lack of consultation with the higher education sector generally. Nor has there been any modelling by the DfES of the impact on higher education provision in each sub-region, or any consideration given by Ministers or advisers to the secondary consequences of change. Surely that should have been going on long before we saw this Bill in order to debate it. I hope that the Minister can inform the House on those points and that, in particular, he will reconsider Clause 19.