Researching Foundation Degrees

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Professor Yvonne Hillier
• University of Brighton

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• In the 21st Century, our natural resource is our
  people and their potential is both untapped and
  vast. Skills will unlock that potential. The
  prize for our country will be enormous higher
  productivity, the creation of wealth and social
  justice (Leitch, 20061)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• I would like you to continue to grow foundation
  degrees
• By 2010
• 100,000 FD enrolments
• 20,000 co-funded places (employer engagement)
• 1000 students on compressed programmes
  (flexible provision)
• (Annual Grant Letter to HEFCE, January 2008)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• DfES (2003 )
• by 2010 there will be almost 800,000 new jobs in
  associate professional and higher education
  occupations
• Leitch (2006)
• 40 workforce to be qualified to Level 4 and
  above by 2020

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Today, people confidently state that they run
  FDs. They understand how to attract learners, run
  programmes, assess learning in the workplace and
  work with employers. They have experience of
  sharing across institutions and organisations. It
  was not like this in 2000

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Brief history
• July 2000 HEFCe Foundation Degree
  Prospectus
• September 2001 Prototype FDs commence
• 2002 FD benchmark created
• 2002 Transferability funding
• 2003 QAA evaluation of FDs
• 2005 QAA evaluation of FDs

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Statistics
• Students
• 2001 4,320 59 full time
• 2003 23,945 51 full time
• 2006 60,925 56 full time
• (1,957,195 total students enrolled in HEIs in
  England)
• Awards
• 2005 8,250 awarded FDs
• 2006 11,000 awarded FDs
• (HEFCe, (2007) Foundation degrees key statistics
  2001-02 to 2006-07)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Statistics
• Institutions
• Pre-92 HEIs Post-92 HEIs FECs
• 2001 13 37 47
• 2003 11 57 160
• 2004 19 64 255
• (HEFCe, (2007) Foundation degrees key statistics
  2001-02 to 2006-07)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Statistics
• Subject areas (2004)
• Subjects allied to medicine 1835
• Biological sciences 1015
• Engineering and technology 1360
• Social studies 1740
• Business and admin studies 2885
• Creative arts and design 2865
• Education 3605
• (HEFCe, (2007) Foundation degrees key statistics
  2001-02 to 2006-07)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Statistics (2004)
• 51 female full time
• 67 female part time
• 82 white full time
• 89 white part time
• 91 without disability full time
• 96 without disability part time
• 27 low participation neighbourhood FEC
• 17 low participation neighbourhood HEI
• (HEFCe, (2007) Foundation degrees key statistics
  2001-02 to 2006-07)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Statistics
• Qualifications - 2002 entrants
• 1535 full time of which 48 gained within 2
  years, 51 within three years
• 1715 part time of which 29 gained within two
  years, 51 within three years
• 1305 of 2003 qualifiers on honours programmes
  (54)
• (HEFCe, (2007) Foundation degrees key statistics
  2001-02 to 2006-07)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Statistics
• Employment and salary 2004 qualifiers
• 1245 full time employed (49)
• 960 part time employed (88)
• Working for previous employer
• 67 full time and 88 part time
• Average salary
• 18,000 male, 16,000 female full time
• 37,000 male, 19,000 female part time
• 32,000 male, 18,000 female average
• (HEFCe, (2007) Foundation degrees key statistics
  2001-02 to 2006-07)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Statistics
• Employer support
• 28 no financial support (self-funding)
• 40 paying own fee
• 51 other support i.e. study leave

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Phases
• How to
• Setting up
• Recruiting and retaining
• Delivering
• Achieving
• Evaluation
• QAA
• HEFCe and LSC
• Monitoring statistics HESA/LSC
• Local and regional delivery
• Critique

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Student experience placement or workplace,
  experience of HE level study, study skills,
  managing study and work commitments
• Institutional collaboration - validation, common
  modules and delivery, learning in the workplace,
  team meetings, staff development
• Employer engagement placements, projects,
  liaison over employee progress

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• QAA reviews (2003, 2005)
• DfES review (2004)
• recruitment levels high
• diversity of subjects
• innovative approaches being adopted
• clear progression
• high levels of collaboration between HEIs and
  FECs
• stakeholders involved in design and some
  development
• employer involvement mixed

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Phase one how to
• Foundation degrees are still very new and there
  is, at the present time, a lack of rich and
  informed accounts of how the sector is coping
  with creating an entirely new breed of awards
• Making Foundation Degrees Work (Brennan and
  Gosling, 2004)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• All contributors indicate it has been an uphill
  struggle to achieve the specified objective of
  making foundation degrees work as they were
  intended, particularly within the limited
  timeframe available for development. ..it proved
  difficult to engage employers and employers
  organisations during this period
• (Brennan and Gosling, 2004 8)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• In order for universities and colleges to work
  in partnership effectively, some degree of
  consensus around diverse regulatory frameworks,
  different systems for validating and approving
  programmes and so forth must be achieved. we
  should not underestimate the tremendous value of
  learning from those who have experience of doing
  it, who have been through the mill and come out
  the other end, sometimes battered but not
  beatenin order to make these programmes
  successful, staff in further and higher education
  institutions, and the employers they have worked
  with, and the students they have recruited, have
  had to work long and hard to find creative and
  innovative solutions to the problems they have
  encountered
• (Brennan and Gosling, 20049-10)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• An important lesson, then, to be shared, is that
  a successful partnership between the three
  providing institutions has been an implicit but
  essential feature of the creation, implementation
  and future sustenance of the FD in Public Service
  Management. This relationship has further
  benefited from enormous efforts to work with
  employers by members of the college team in
  particular. The message is simple provide
  adequate resourcing in terms of staff and time to
  fully collaborate between stakeholders, and
  identify clear roles and responsibilities for
  each party and future foundation degrees will
  stand a good chance of successfully achieving
  their aim to enable people to make an immediate
  contribution to the workplace and an early impact
  on the bottom line
• (Hillier, Rawnsley and Butt, in Brennan and
  Gosling, 2004213)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Phase two evaluation
• The student experience
• Edmond (2004, 2007) Role of workforce development
• Tierney and Slack, (2005) Learning journeys of FD
  students
• Hillier and Rawnsley (2006, 2008)
• University of Portsmouth Foundation Direct 2008
  study ongoing

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• The institutional and provider perspective
• Morgan, Jones and Fitzgibbon, (2004) critical
  reflections on the development of a foundation
  degree
• Reeve, Gallacher and Ingram (2007) comparative
  study of FDs in England and Higher Nationals in
  Scotland
• Fdf (2007) A guide to collaboration between
  higher education and employers

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• The employer perspective
• Hillier and Rawnsley (2006, 2008)
• 5 cohorts of students and their employers
  surveyed
• Questionnaire to employers
• (33 response rate)
• Questionnaire to students
• (25 response rate)
• Follow up interviews

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• support for Foundation Degree
• evidence of useful knowledge gained
• tensions and challenges for employees managing
  own goals against organisational demands
• polarisation of experiences and perceptions
• Fully supported
• No opportunity to put knowledge into practice
• Tensions between wanting to have input onto the
  programme and to support employee versus time to
  do so
• Full involvement versus minimal
• Hillier and Rawnsley (2006, 2008)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• We take it as read that technical capability is
  there the key skills we are looking for in our
  team leaders is getting them to recognise that
  they have to lead the team. So it is performance
  management skills, managing conflict with the
  team, also coaching and developing the team as
  well
• what I would expect from anyone doing the course
  is what they are learning is useful to them in
  that they can transfer it to the workplace
• Hillier and Rawnsley (2006, 2008)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Tensions and ChallengesTime
• I originally had it tough to get the time off
  from work for every Thursday from 1.30pm to make
  it to college for a 2pm start. I have to make up
  my hours at work by starting an hour and a half
  early and missing half an hour lunch sometimes
  everyday, just to make up my four hours from work
  every Thursday (Student, National Educational
  Organisation)
• Time-off doesnt cause me any problems, it
  causes the employee problems because she has to
  catch up with her workWe can work round her
  being at College for half a dayShe has to sort
  out the priorities that is data collection.
  This is a challenge for her (OK, NHS)
• Hillier and Rawnsley (2006, 2008)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• The employer perspective
• The challenge here is not just about ensuring
  that the nature and extent of the HE offer meets
  the needs of employers but involves motivating
  employers and individual employees to see value
  and engage in higher level skills development.
  Because of this issue we do not, as yet, know
  about the demand from employers and the ability
  of HEIs to meet that demand (HEA, 20067)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Consistency of current evaluation studies
• Consistency of challenges
• A worthwhile programme
• personal gains
• organisational gains
• provider gains?
• Phase three critique

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Brighton and Hove challenges
• Additional 12000 residents of working age by 2017
• 8400 additional people required to maintain 75/6
  employment rate by 2017
• Lower than average earnings
• 48.5 Level 4 occupations (43.5 nationally)
• 20.8 level 3 (23 nationally)
• 30.7 Level 2 (33.6 nationally)
• Hourglass economy (labour market dualism)
• 70 new jobs within last 10 years are in higher
  level occupations and continue to expect 78 new
  jobs at this level
• (Brighton Hove City Employment and Skills Plan
  2007/8 2010/11)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• It was a fantastic experience and I miss it
  dearly. It did broaden my thinking outside the
  box.
• The FD really changed my life in all areas, both
  personal and professional, in a positive and
  empowering way. It has enabled me to develop into
  the person Ive always wanted to be
• Hillier and Rawnsley (2006, 2008)

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• References
• Brennan, L and Gosling, D (2004) Making
  Foundation Degrees Work Brentwood SEEC
• Brighton Hove City Council (2008) Brighton
  Hove City Employment and Skills Plan 2007/8
  2010/11
• DfES (2003) Foundation Degrees Meeting the Need
  for Higher Level Skills London DfES
• DfES (2004) Evaluation of Foundation Degrees
  Final Report York Consulting
• Edmond, N (2004) The Foundation Degree as
  Evidence of a new Higher Education A study of HE
  provision of teaching assistants Higher Education
  Review 36 (3) 33 53
• Edmond, N, Hillier, Y and Price, M (2007) Between
  a rock and a hard place the role of HE and
  foundation degrees in workforce development
  Education and Training 49 (3) 170-81
• Fdf (2007) Developing higher skills in the UK
  workforce a guide to collaboration between
  higher education and employers hefce/skills for
  business
• Foundation direct(2008) www.port.ac.uk/research/i
  fd accessed April 2008
• HEFCe, (2007) Foundation degrees key statistics
  2001-02 to 2006-07
• Higher Education Academy (2006) Work-based
  learning illuminating the higher education
  landscape York HEA
• Hillier,Y, Rawnsley, T and Butt, N (2004)
  Evaluating a Foundation Degree in Public Service
  Management in Brennan and Gosling, 2004 Making
  Foundation Degrees Work Brentwood SEEC pp
  195-214
• Hillier, Y and Rawnsley, T (2006) The Weakest
  Link Engaging Employers in foundation Degrees
  Paper presented at Lifelong Learning Conference
  University of Central Queensland 13-16 June 2006
• Hillier, Y and Rawnsley, T (2008) Engaging
  employers? Higher Education Review 40 (2) pp 47 -
  62

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Researching Foundation Degrees

• Ingram R and Gallacher, J (2007) Drawing
  work-based learning into formal programmes A
  comparative study of work-based learning within
  Higher Nationals in Scotland and Foundation
  Degrees in England Paper presented at the SRHE
  annual Conference, Brighton December 2007
• Johnson, B and Cundell, S(2007)Putting the
  Learner at the Centre Credit Frameworks and
  Foundation Degrees in Sussex Sussex Learning
  Network/SEEC
• Morgan, A, Jones, N and Fitzgibbon, K (2004)
  Critical Reflections on the Development of a
  Foundation Degree Research in Post-compulsory
  Education 9 (3) pp 353-369
• Quality Assurance Agency (2002) Foundation
  Degree Qualification Benchmark
  www.qaa.co.uk/public/foundationstatement
• QAA (2005) Learning from reviews of Foundation
  Degrees in England carried out in 2004-5
  Gloucester Quality Assurance Agency for Higher
  Education
• Snape, D, Tanner, E, MacKenzie, H (2006)
  Evaluation of the Early Years Sector-Endorsed
  Foundation Degree Research Report 804 London
  DfES
• Taylor, J Brown, R Dickens, S Evaluating the
  Early years Sector Endorsed Foundation Degree A
  Qualitative study of employers and mentors
  experiences Research Report 752 London DfES
• Tierney, s and Slack, K (2005) Learning journeys
  the experiences of students working towards a
  foundation degree Journal of Vocational Education
  and Training 57 (3) pp 375-388