Publications

Higher Education in Further Education: Leading the Challenge

With the future shape of tertiary education in the UK up for debate and a substantial expansion of higher education in colleges expected to play an important role in the government’s post-18 funding review, this monograph could not be more relevant to the challenges the sector now faces.

With the future shape of tertiary education in the UK up for debate and a substantial expansion of higher education in colleges expected to play an important role in the government’s post-18 funding review, this monograph could not be more relevant to the challenges the sector now faces.

If, as is widely anticipated, higher education becomes much more central to the mission of further education colleges in England, we will, as a sector, need to think much harder about the sorts of skills leaders and governors will require to adapt and flourish in what could, in some respects, be a very different world.

The thought-provoking and comprehensive overview this publication offers in support of new thinking about the skills we will need, and the potential contribution of further education institutes both to the economic prosperity of the nation and to the well-being and success
of their local communities, make it essential reading for sector leaders.

The renewed attention to HE in FE comes during a period of substantial reform, which has focused particularly on the need for higher technical skills. The Sainsbury review and the subsequent post-16 skills plan both indicated a willingness to think differently and more expansively about technical education, and there is clear impetus for this from Brexit and Britain’s seemingly intractable productivity puzzle.

The review of technical professional education will be crucial if the government is to achieve the ambition of all recent skills strategies and reforms – to establish a world-class skills system capable of closing the productivity gap and matching our international competitors – while also preparing us for a post-Brexit world in while we will rely much more on our own homegrown talent.

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