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Plans for new technical degrees and technical universities unveiled by shadow universities minister Liam Byrne last week have been hailed by Labour as a “pioneering concept”. But we must look beyond the hyperbole of politics and recognise that some of these initiatives bear a striking resemblance to existing provision – rebadged and rebranded.
All parties will need to review how we will sustain higher education in future as it is the key to securing the UK’s competitiveness in the changing global marketplace. This underpins Liam Byrne’s Robbins Rebooted report, which therefore must be applauded. But yet another call for radical reform and upheaval will give those working in education an inescapable sense of déjà vu.
While the importance of ensuring we produce graduates with the skills required for business is clear, there’s a danger that – despite assurances to the contrary – the proposals will move us toward a binary divide which downgrades the importance of vocational qualifications and recreates a new form of polytechnic.
Relaunching existing ideas with new titles may make for good soundbites, but has the danger of diluting investment. It risks creating another tier of qualifications and institutions rather than investing in current universities and colleges that are recognised across the world as doing an outstanding job for the UK.
Labour’s plans are far from new and revolutionary, and are in truth a reflection of what universities across the UK have been engaged in for many years with notable success.
Take for example Byrne’s ideas for local college partnerships that allow students to start their journey to a degree at their local college. He claims in an interview with the Guardian that this will be the “first time” a student can begin their degree at a local college and then finish it at a university.
Universities have been working with colleges on provision of foundation degrees since they were introduced in 2001, and even longer on HNC and HND programmes. Robbins Rebooted claims that the work-based degree route has collapsed, but I would contest that view and say instead it needs proper attention. Many strong partnerships still exist and should be further developed without the need for the introduction of yet another qualification in the form of technical degrees.
Also among the raft of proposals was the introduction of learn-while-you-earn courses that allow students to join an employer and study at the same time. But let’s be clear, employer-sponsored study is not new. At my university for example, we have over 4,000 sponsored students undertaking undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
What would truly be pioneering is a government that was prepared to offer its backing to this provision in the form of proper investment to make sure that smaller to medium sized companies – as well as larger businesses – can provide these learning opportunities to their employees.
Development of the skills industry requires investment in facilities – especially in science and technology-intensive areas. The critical thinking that employers look for needs to be developed through active engagement in a research informed environment. This does not mean all universities should seek to be research-intensive, but all universities should be at least research-active and informed.
We need to look holistically at the funding available so that all students have the opportunity to study at such a university, even if only in later years of study.
For any long-term ambition to increase partnership between industry and education to be successful, true innovation should come from politicians to move away from soundbites and instead look to build upon the demonstrable successes that the university sector has achieved – against a backdrop of significant upheaval.
What Labour’s plans fail to identify is that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel, we need to invest in the existing infrastructure to facilitate greater partnerships between business, universities and colleges and to ensure that students accessing universities have the facilities and teaching required to ensure they develop the graduate attributes sought by employers.
Professor David Phoenix is vice-chancellor of London South Bank University.
More on this:
• Liam Byrne: ‘we need to put higher education at centre stage of policy’
• Labour warns UK will lose global science lead without more investment
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