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Remaking Tertiary Education

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Remaking Tertiary Education 1 About the author Alison Wolf: Professor the Baroness Wolf of Dulwich CBE Alison Wolf is the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London and sits in the House of Lords as a cross-bench peer. She specialises in the relationship between education and the labour market and directs the International Centre for University Policy Research within the Policy Institute at King’s. She was the founding chair of governors for King’s College London Mathematics School, a state school for talented young mathematicians. In March 2011 she completed the Wolf Review of Vocational Education for the Secretary of State for Education, whose recommendations were accepted and implemented. Publications include ‘The XX Factor: how working women are creating a new society’; ‘Heading for the precipice: Can further and higher education funding policies be sustained?’ and ‘Does Education Matter?’. Acknowledgements & EPI contributors This report was supported by the Education Policy Institute, and builds upon ongoing research carried out by Alison Wolf at the Policy Institute, King's College London, and supported by King's. Major contributions were made by Peter Sellen and Gerard Dominguez-Reig, most notably to the quantitative analyses of cost to the Exchequer under different scenarios, and of enrolments and fees in the university and alternative provider sectors. The contribution of Ella Baggaley-Simpson is also gratefully acknowledged. Both the Association of Accounting Technicians and the Department for Education kindly provided data and clarifications on trends and definitions. The help of all of these is gratefully acknowledged. All views and conclusions are entirely the authors' own. Peter Sellen, Chief Economist. Peter worked as a government economist from 2006 to 2016 in several Whitehall departments, including time in the Department for Education. He is the author of the recent Education Policy Institute report: ‘Teacher workload and professional development in England’s secondary schools: insights from TALIS’. Gerard Domínguez-Reig, Quantitative Analyst. Gerard previously worked as a coordinator for the UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology at the Open University in Catalonia, where he conducted research for education-related international conferences. He previously worked as a Policy and Research Assistant at the Center for Legal Studies and Specialized Training for the Government of Catalonia, producing policy analysis to advise the regional Ministry of Justice on criminal and juvenile justice. Ella Baggaley-Simpson, Research Intern. isbn: 978-1-909274-35-8 Published July 2016 Education Policy Institute. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. For more information visit creativecommons.org 1 About the Education Policy Institute The Education Policy Institute is an independent, impartial and evidence-based research institute that aims to promote high quality education outcomes, regardless of social background. Education can have a transformational effect on the lives of young people. Through our research, we provide insights, commentary and critiques about education policy in England - shedding light on what is working and where further progress needs to be made. Our research and analysis will span a young person's journey from the early years through to higher education and entry to the labour market. Because good mental health is vital to learning, we also have a dedicated mental health team which will consider the challenges, interventions and opportunities for supporting young people's wellbeing. The core research areas include: . Accountability and Inspection . Benchmarking English Education . Curriculum and Qualifications . Disadvantaged, SEND, and Vulnerable Children . Early Years Development . School Funding . School Performance and Leadership . Teacher Supply and Quality . Children and Young People's Mental Health . Education for Offenders Our experienced and dedicated team works closely with academics, think tanks, and other research foundations and charities to shape the policy agenda. 2 Contents Foreword ................................................................................................................................................. 5 Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1. Current tertiary provision (1): the shrinking of technical education in England ................ 12 Further, technical and vocational institutions .................................................................................. 13 What is the FE sector producing? ..................................................................................................... 15 Sub-degree provision in the higher education sector ...................................................................... 21 HNCs and HNDs ................................................................................................................................. 22 Foundation degrees .......................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 2. Current tertiary provision (2): the explosion of higher education ...................................... 25 The move to institutional uniformity ................................................................................................ 29 Chapter 3. Tertiary qualifications and the labour market .................................................................... 32 Over-educated workers or skill shortages? ...................................................................................... 32 Demand for intermediate skills ........................................................................................................ 34 Wage Returns and intermediate qualifications ................................................................................ 36 Wage returns and degrees ................................................................................................................ 39 Graduate skills and economic growth .............................................................................................. 41 Chapter 4. ‘It’s the money, stupid’: how funding drives tertiary enrolments ...................................... 44 Funding undergraduate degrees....................................................................................................... 44 Income-contingent loans .................................................................................................................. 45 Universities’ incentives and response............................................................................................... 47 Funding tertiary education in further education .............................................................................. 51 Where next? The effect of current incentives on future tertiary provision ..................................... 54 Chapter 5. The public costs of higher education: why the nature of expansion matters .................... 56 Quantifying the public cost of the student finance system .............................................................. 56 Expanding higher education now has significant and uncertain financial implications for this, and future, governments ......................................................................................................................... 58 Who goes to university, and their outcomes, matter greatly .......................................................... 61 Public subsidies for higher education could be better targeted ...................................................... 63 Implications ....................................................................................................................................... 66 Chapter 6. Where should we go from here? ....................................................................................... 67 Unlocking the system ........................................................................................................................ 68 Reaching older adults and part-timers ............................................................................................. 72 3 Why qualifications matter ................................................................................................................ 72 Equal or unequal benefits? ............................................................................................................... 73 Notes ..................................................................................................................................................... 76 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 85 4 Foreword The Education Policy Institute (EPI) is an independent, impartial, and evidence-based research institute which aims to promote high quality education outcomes for all, through analysis which both informs and influences the policy debate in England and internationally. On occasions, it will support and publish the work of other writers in support of this aim. We are delighted to have contributed analysis to and be publishing Professor
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