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Foundation Degree Forward www.fdf.ac.uk Working for a degree of difference Derek Longhurst [email protected]
‘If we are to become a leading knowledge based economy we must create new routes into higher education and new forms of provision….We have to develop new higher education opportunities at [the intermediate level], orientated strongly to the employability skills, specialist knowledge and broad understanding needed in the new economy.’
Modernising Higher Education: meeting the global challenge: February 2000
‘The Foundation Degree will offer a new vocationally-focussed route into higher education. It will be academically rigorous and will provide an accessible and flexible building block for lifelong learning and future career success, drawing together further and higher education and the world of work. It will be designed to be highly valued in the labour market and appeal to a wide range of students, including the most able...For students wishing to continue their learning, there will be the opportunity to progress to an honours degree with only one-and-a-third extra years of study.’
Sources of innovation
‘….foundation degrees will fail if they are heavily promoted as a system-wide supply-side recipe for growth – what could have been a really imaginative, high quality new venture…..will collapse under the weight of expectation and likely ‘lowest common denominator’ development….’
Watson and Bowden (2005), The Turtle and the Fruit-Fly: New Labour and UK Higher Education 2001-2005
Sources of innovation
‘The challenge is to change the curriculum, the environment and the culture so that it meets the needs of learners, not to change the learner so that they meet the needs of the university.’
Geoff Layer (2005), Closing the Equity Gap?, Leicester, NIACE
What is a Foundation Degree?
• A distinctive HE experience• Integral role for employers• Partnership• Flexibility• Integrated work-based learning
• Total of 2896 Fd courses
• 2193 (76%) of these are currently running
• 703 new courses in development
• 78% Fd courses are delivered by FECs
Foundation degrees – January 2007
Foundation degree student numbers
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07
Academic year
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tud
ents
Foundation degree student numbers by region
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6,000
7,000
8,000
NE NW EM EE LO SE SW YH WM OU
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ents
2003/04
2004/05
2005/06
Foundation degree courses by region (2006-07)
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600
NW SW SE YH EE LO WM NE EM
Region
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s
Courses running Courses planned
Foundation degree courses by subject area (2006-07)
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50
100
150
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400
Educa
tion
Busine
ss
Compu
ting
Art an
d Des
ign
Health
and
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e
Land
-bas
edSpo
rt
Hospi
tality
and
Tou
rism
Engin
eerin
g
Perfo
rming
Arts
Comm
unity
Med
ia
Const
ructi
on
Public
Ser
vices
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olog
y
Bioscie
nce
Other
Retail
Trans
port
Scienc
eLa
w
Nu
mb
er
of
Fd
s
Courses running Courses planned
• In 2006-07 there are 60,925 Fd students (up from 46,780 in 2005-06)
• in 2006-07 there are just over 27,000 part-time Fd students (up from just under 20,000 in 2005-06) - there was a drop in overall part-time undergraduate numbers during the same period
• 46% of Fd students are taught at HEIs and 54% of are taught at FECs
• 56% of part-time students are taught in HEIs
Data source: Foundation degrees: key statistics 2001-02 to 2006-07 (HEFCE, 2007)
Key statistics
• 77% of part-time students are supported by their employer (financially or otherwise), employer support is rare amongst full-time students
• 64% of students are aged 21 or over when they start their Fd and 57% of students are female
• the proportion of entrants from low participation neighbourhoods is higher than generally found in the undergraduate population - clear evidence that Fds are providing opportunities for those who would not traditionally engage with HE
Data source: Foundation degrees: key statistics 2001-02 to 2006-07 (HEFCE, 2007)
Key statistics
