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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

My Lords, I can hardly believe that it is 14 years since the publication of the report of the Hamlyn Foundation’s National Education Commission, which I was privileged to chair. At that time we were very concerned about a number of issues relating to higher and further education. There has been a series of major developments since that time which are to be warmly commended. One of the things that we recommended at the time was the establishment of learning and skills councils. We also recommended that there should be a progressive move to a greater degree of parity of esteem as between academic and vocational qualifications. The further education sector has done a wonderful job in those intervening 14 years in providing proper standards of vocational education for many individuals who would not otherwise have benefited from that kind of educational experience. But it is fair to recognise that there is considerable anxiety—which I know will soon be articulated by the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick—in the university sector about the powers which this clause will now grant to further education colleges. The foundation degree launched in 2001 was always intended to provide a vocationally focused and academically rigorous route into higher education with built in progression opportunities for foundation degree students who wanted to progress to honours degree level. There has been a rapid growth in foundation degree delivery, largely achieved through extensive and successful collaboration between higher and further education institutions. The universities have pointed out that more than 60,000 foundation degree students were registered by 2006 but that no university provided validation of those degrees without also providing tuition either directly or through a franchise agreement. The problem that I see with this clause is that it is likely to break, or at least to have the possible effect of breaking, that crucial link. Many universities are concerned that progression to higher education will be adversely affected and that higher education institutions will have less incentive to articulate foundation degrees with honours programmes, thus undermining the excellent progress that has been made towards building ladders of progression through lifelong learning networks. FE colleges do not currently have the power to award any other nationally recognised qualifications in their own right but only through recognised awarding bodies such as City and Guilds and BTEC. This clause will create an anomaly whereby FE colleges will be able to award HE-level qualifications but not those at FE level. Many HEIs have invested heavily in building collaborative relationships with FE colleges. These may be put at risk if they are in competition with each other over foundation degree programmes. I and many others who have a lifetime’s involvement in the university sector have concerns about the whole principle articulated in Clause 19. The noble Lord, Lord Adonis, put the case very well and was very persuasive but I still cannot overcome those reservations about awarding foundation degree-awarding powers to FE colleges, whatever work the Quality Assessment Agency undertakes before they are given that power. I have concerns about the principles in Clause 19.