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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment No. 43, which is in this group. I am in the unusual position of listening to a 20-minute reply to amendments I have tabled but not argued for. I am most grateful to the Minister—I am overwhelmed. If I may, I will take all four elements of my amendment. The first was that students must be consulted before an application is made for foundation degree-awarding powers. What the Minister said is excellent. It is a necessary condition for the award of powers that this consultation takes place. I take it that it is implicit in that provision that the outcome of that consultation will be notified to the QAA when it considers the application. I am well satisfied on that. The final part of my amendment—I will leave the two more difficult points until last—concerns a review after four years. The Minister explained why he has gone for six years—there is a precedent, but I have chosen another precedent for my four years. I am reassured, however, by the knowledge and his assurance that there will be an interim review after some unspecified period—probably around three years. That means that he has gone a long way towards my view that there needs to be an early review. I am well content to accept what he has said. I turn to the more difficult elements: one was franchising and the other was progression. On franchising, the Minister said that there has been some further thought about the information given in, I think, Section 8 of the notes that were circulated on 14 February. It provided that most of the learning had to take place in the institution that had the degree-awarding powers. He has now moved away from that to provide for those cases where much of the learning takes place in a company. I believe that there are a number of such cases where most, if not nearly all, learning takes place in a company. I think the Minister was saying that the ““most”” criterion now applies to an institution of further education that does not have degree-awarding powers. I can understand that, but I would like to read carefully what the Minister said. If a large proportion of, or ““most””, learning is delivered in a company, I would be concerned if it were still permissible for some other part of it, say a quarter, to be delivered by a FE college without degree-awarding powers. I recognise that the Minister is making a substantial response to my amendment on this—it is a case of looking at the detail. I come finally to the issue of progression. I attach great weight to this for two reasons. First, because it concerns something worked for and paid for by a student in an FE college; it is called a foundation degree. We know now that 54 per cent of students progress from that to an honours degree. It is, therefore, essential to them that there should be this opportunity for progression. There should be no doubt about it that an FE college has a progression agreement with at least one higher education institution, and that the criteria should extend beyond bare existence of some such thing. It should be attainable, as an additional commitment to study, in some recognised, maximum period. One does not want to have to take two or three years to do thefinal year. I see in the notes that we were given that1.3 years is regarded as a maximum—that seems right. I want to be absolutely clear about the intention of the Government. In his speech, the Minister said that the QAA has to be satisfied, at the time of submission, that the college has such an arrangement. We know that there are 700 foundation degrees under development. That is at the moment, and there will be hundreds more as time progresses. I want to be absolutely clear that the requirement applies not only to those that were being offered at the time of the application but will apply to any that are offered by the college at any time in the future. That seems fundamental. There is a second reason why I think this matteris important. The first reason was to do with a fair deal for the student. The second is to do with the assurance of quality. It is an assurance to me that the FE college must have an arrangement with an institution of higher education before it can offer a foundation degree. That seems to me a very important assurance that this foundation degree is of the nature of a degree in higher education in the United Kingdom. That is very important to every institution and to the nation given, as we recognised, the importance of the brand, which is not only worth billions of pounds a year in foreign exchange earnings but in attracting a good share of the ablest people in the world into our institutions. I see this as an assurance and one that I want to see going beyond the six years. As I understood what the Minister said, there will be a thorough check after six years, but thereafter it will be within the powers of the Privy Council to give an indefinite award. I want to besure that when that happens, it is nevertheless a requirement that there should be an articulation arrangement with at least one university for every course; otherwise, the student will be short-changed and will be at risk. I am concerned about this being a thin end of a wedge. Things do not stand still. As I recall, the polytechnics served an apprenticeship of 20 years to get their degree-awarding powers. Until then, they were under the guidance of the CNAA. But they got those powers. Now we have a situation in which it was decided that there should be foundation degrees, but from a university even though they are delivered by an FE institution. Now we are moving on to say, ““No, they will do it in their own right””. I am concerned that we shall move on from that to say, ““Why should they not move to the full degree and become fully institutions in which a student can pursue the whole course in one place””? I can see advantages in that, but it changes the mission of the further education colleges. I am deeply concerned that they should stay with their mission because they constitute an engine room for skills for the whole economy. It is a natural aspiration for people to want to move up market, but we need people who concentrate on the engine room rather than go on to the bridge; they drive the ship. I am well content with what the Minister said on my amendment with regard to the students’ voice and the review. I listened to what the Minister said on the other two points. He has gone a long way to meet me. I should like to read precisely what he said on franchising; I hope to be fully reassured. On my last point on articulation, which I saved to the end, this is an enduring concern which goes beyond six years. It is an issue on which I may ask the House to listen to me again at Third Reading.