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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

My Lords, we on these Benches have always supported the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, and note with pleasure the Government’s intentions in relation to most of the matters within it. The guidance published in advance of this Report stage has been helpful. Noble Lords will note that we on these Benches have not re-tabled our amendments which sought to restrict award-making powers to particular courses or departments, given that we have been convinced during our consultations since Grand Committee that any college which reaches the quality required by the Privy Council would have sufficient internal quality control procedures to ensure that such a college was not likely to put on the market a degree from a weak department. The market would sort that out, anyway. On progression, I shall not reiterate what has been said by three noble Lords, but we share their concerns. I have a feeling that there will be some chat about this matter between now and Third Reading, and we might come back to it. I am particularly keen on the ban on franchising in paragraph (6C) of the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Dearing. We believe that the whole matter of degree-awarding powers is a major step that should be carried out with extreme caution—a bit at a time and with appropriate safeguards. Therefore, we welcome Government Amendments Nos. 41 and 42 and the thought that the Government have put into making appropriate arrangements for work-based learning. I note that paragraph (6D) in the amendmentof the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, is a sort of probationary period and I welcome the statement in the guidance that a college would have to be reviewed after six years, rather than four. It seems appropriate that the number of years should be consistent across the sector. But, from the point of view of the student, to have a foundation degree from an institution which, at the end of the probationary period, lost the power to award degrees, would call into question the validity of the degree that the student had already obtained. Is there any way of safeguarding the quality of that degree during the probationary period, should the institution not retain degree-awarding powers after the six-year period? Perhaps a mentor university could be appointed who could guarantee the quality of the degrees awarded during the probationary period. In the interests of the student, some though will need to be given to that if that happens, because not every college will get through its probationary period and go on to be given powers to award foundation degrees in perpetuity. At least one or two could very well not make it, and we need to think about the degrees obtained by such students. Can the Minister consider that idea?