Teaching and Learning on Foundation Degrees

Claire Taylor, Claire Taylor

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781441147639
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

What is a Foundation Degree? What are the needs of Foundation Degree students? How should course design and delivery be shaped? This text is a complete guide for academic tutors and support staff involved in teaching on Foundation Degrees. The contributors explore the specific and diverse needs of Foundation Degree students, a unique client-group in Further Education (FE) / Higher Education (HE) who have differing academic qualifications and work-based experiences. They address aspects of course design and delivery including teaching techniques, e-learning and assessment. Drawing together theory and practice, this text will provide clear practical models for how to successfully deliver Foundation Degrees through the use of exemplar materials, case studies, reflection points and the learner voice.

1

What is a Foundation Degree?

Claire Taylor

Chapter Outline

The expansion of higher education and the emergence of Foundation Degrees

Work-based higher education and the ‘new vocationalism’

Foundation Degrees: policy and practice

Employer involvement

Accessibility, articulation and progression

Flexibility and partnership

Summary

This chapter will:

• outline the developmental background to the establishment of the Foundation Degree qualification

• present a survey of the significant changes within the UK higher education landscape since the 1960s

• explore the place of Foundation Degrees as a response both to higher education expansion and to changing attitudes towards vocational learning outline the development of work-based learning within higher education as part of ‘the new vocationalism’ (Symes and McIntyre, 2000)

• present the unique features pertaining to the Foundation Degree model as described in the Foundation Degree benchmark statement (QAA, 2010).

The expansion of higher education and the emergence of Foundation Degrees

Foundation Degrees were introduced as a new higher education qualification to England and Wales during the academic year 2001–2002. They are situated at Level 5 of the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland (QAA, 2008) and feature the integration of academic study and work-based learning as a central part of course design and delivery (DfES, 2004; QAA, 2010). The position of the Foundation Degree within the FHEQ is shown in Appendix 1.

The first Foundation Degree courses began in September 2001, but the rationale for their appearance can be traced to a variety of initiatives linked to the expansion of higher education, beginning with the Robbins Report (Committee on Higher Education, 1963) which made a commitment to make a higher education place available to all those who were suitably qualified. This initiated a major expansion of higher education by recommending the establishment of polytechnics, based upon the premise that a key aim of higher education should be to develop employment-related skills.

Yet, five years later, the Committee on Manpower Resources for Science and Technology (1968) reported a continuing difficulty with attracting well-qualified and skilled graduates into science, technology and engineering in the United Kingdom. The Robbins Report had kick-started a rise in the percentage of under-21 students engaged in higher education, which increased from around 5 per cent to nearly 15 per cent by 1970 (Bathmaker, 2003), but expansion then levelled off until the late 1980s. In 1988 another rapid rise in student numbers was recorded, largely within polytechnics and colleges of higher education, following the Education Reform Act (DES, 1988) which created a new funding body for polytechnics and higher education colleges away from local authority control. This rise was further fuelled in 1992 when the two-sector, or binary, system was abolished by the Further and Higher Education Act (DES, 1992), allowing polytechnics to declare themselves universities.

In 1997, the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education chaired by Sir Ron Dearing highlighted the importance of developing higher education level qualifications as part of a strategy for increasing participation in higher education, in effect giving the government a green light to pursue its growing commitment to widening access and participation and to explore higher education expansion. Dearing expected that much of this expansion would be at ‘sub-degree level’ – an early indication of the role that Foundation Degrees came to have in the expansion of higher education (and this is explored more fully in the next section of this chapter). The ‘Future of Higher Education’ report (DfES, 2003) clarified a Labour government target of 50 per cent participation within higher education by 2010 for the 18–30 age group, although recent statistics show that the proportion of young adults entering higher education has stalled (DIUS, 2008). Nevertheless, the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE) strategic plan states that ‘widening access and increasing participation remains a crucial part of our mission’ (HEFCE, 2009, p. 6).

Within the context of higher education expansion, the government at the time identified Foundation Degree provision as having a key part to play in meeting widening participation targets and providing appropriately skilled employees for the nation’s workforce:

We want to see expansion in two-year, work-focused Foundation Degrees; and in mature students in the workforce developing their skills. As we do this, we will maintain the quality standards required for access to university, both safeguarding the standards of traditional honours degrees and promoting a step-change in the quality and reputation of work-focused courses. (DfES, 2003, para 5.10)

The role identified here for Foundation Degrees in terms of providing the means to promote a proposed ‘step-change’ in the quality of work-focused courses within higher education is an aspect not to be overlooked. Alongside the expansion of higher education, arising from a desire to engineer social and economic equality for individuals as well as securing national economic prosperity, there were significant developments within the sphere of vocational education and the development of work-based higher education courses, and these are considered next.

Work-based higher education and the ‘new vocationalism’

‘New vocationalism’ began in schools and colleges and has a specific history that runs parallel to the story of expansion outlined in the earlier section. During the 1970s, there was increasing dissatisfaction on the part of the government and employers with the quality of both school leavers and university graduates who appeared to be illequipped to contribute to a technologically advancing society. During what became known as the ‘Great Debate’ at Ruskin College in 1976, James Callaghan reported the concerns expressed to him during his tour of Britain, carried out over the first few months of his term as prime minister. As well as complaints from industry that school leavers were not equipped to enter the world of work, Callaghan also conveyed concern that graduates in subjects such as mathematics, science and technology had no desire to join industry. Therefore, it seemed that a dual approach to the future development of vocational education was needed – one that focused not only upon school leavers, but also upon higher education graduates.

During the 1970s and 1980s, many responses to the skills shortage among school leavers focused upon job-specific training that served to underline the divisions and distinctions between vocational and academic studies by narrowly defining skills and competencies (Farley, 1985; Boreham, 2002; Hager and Hyland, 2003). This drive comprised initiatives such as Youth Training Schemes (YTS), National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and others. The pathway for vocational qualifications became highly competence-based and was even viewed as devaluing vocational learning by some (Boreham, 2002; Hyland, 2006). Crucially, as there developed a growing recognition of the need to move away from the narrowness of pure vocational qualifications to have transferable skills and knowledge, and to draw back from the polarization of vocational and academic learning, the ‘new vocationalism’ was born within schools (Dale, 1985; Pollard et al., 1988). Initially, this was in the form of the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI): rather than focusing exclusively upon skills training, the new vocationalism was more about enabling ‘occupational versatility and personal adjustment’ (Dale, 1985, p. 7), to bridge the gap between meeting the needs of industry and supporting individual pupils in fully realizing their potential.

Within the post-compulsory sector, the phrase ‘the new vocationalism’ was used to describe courses which sought to provide higher-level applicable knowledge and skills (Symes and McIntyre, 2000; Hager and Hyland, 2003). Of growing importance at this time was the need for traditional understandings of higher education to be reinterpreted and reconstructed within the context of the working world, while at the same time trying not to perpetuate the academic-vocational divide. In this respect, the ‘Choosing to change’ report (Higher Education Quality Council, 1994) recommended qualifications at the Higher Education Intermediate level, which combined vocational relevance and the potential for further progression within the higher education framework, as well as enhanced employment opportunities. In 1997, the ‘Dearing’ report highlighted the role that higher education level qualifications could play as part of a strategy for increasing participation. This was followed by two reports of the National Skills Task Force (DfEE, 1998; 1999), the second of which ‘Delivering skills for all’ (DfEE, 1999) recommended exploring a new system of two-year associate degrees in vocational subjects to support progression from Level 3 qualifications such as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). In addition, organizations such as the Council for Industry and Higher Education (established in 1986), the Centre for Education and Industry (established in 1988) and more recently, enterprise and employability-focused Centres of Excellence for Teaching and Learning (CETLS) plus initiatives such as the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), have spawned a range of higher education-based activities linked to graduate enterprise and employability.

Alongside the reappraisal of vocational training and education from a narrow to a broader conception within ‘the new vocationalism’, a growing feature of educational and political discourse was reference to the ‘knowledge-based economy’. This appears in the foreword to the Foundation Degrees consultation document (DfEE, 2000) and underlines the political endorsement of a growing societal expectation that specialist knowledge was fast becoming the key currency for economic growth and success. The discourse surrounding the knowledge-based economy (an economy where knowledge has become a commodity to be produced, distributed and used) can be construed as challenging higher education as the central producer of knowledge, although commentators assert that the university has long held a central part in the production of knowledge and that this can, and should, continue (Symes and McIntyre, 2000; Delanty, 2001). What is clear, though, is that different forms of knowledge have gained legitimacy in a range of academic, work-based, professional and personal contexts (Eraut, 1994; Gibbons et al., 1994; Symes and McIntyre, 2000; Boud and Solomon, 2001; Delanty, 2001) underlining a growing deconstruction of traditional knowledge and institutional boundaries. This development appears to be inevitable within the context of the ‘knowledge economy’ and signifies a change in perception of what a university education may entail.

The developments outlined above created a climate in which it was no longer acceptable to polarize academic and vocational skills or knowledge and understanding. Instead, the new vocationalism promoted a more integrated approach both to fulfil widening access and participation targets for higher education and to provide education and training for employment within a rapidly changing and globalized economy, struggling with skills shortages among the workforce. In addition, the deconstruction of traditional knowledge and institutional boundaries was leading to the development of higher education courses that sought to apply knowledge in a range of contexts, not just act as transmitters of abstract knowledge (Gibbons et al., 1994). To this effect, work-based learning was seen as the ‘new frontier’ (Raelin, 2000), as ‘a new higher education’ (Boud and Solomon, 2001) and as ‘new practices for new times’ (Boud et al., 2001). The nature and scope of work-based learning is discussed more fully in Chapter 2 .

In summary, Foundation Degrees developed from a desire to meet employer needs in addressing skills and knowledge shortages at the same time as providing a means for entry to and progression through the higher education framework, thus contributing to widening access and participation. They have developed within the context of a continuing reappraisal of what constitutes vocational education and training, as well as what constitutes valid ‘knowledge’ within the academy. Linking these debates has been the common thread of an emerging ‘new vocationalism’, which has emphasized the need to reinterpret and reconstruct traditional understandings of higher education within the context of today’s working world (Barnett, 2000), and to embrace work-based learning in higher education contexts. Foundation Degrees have emerged as a new form of work-based learning within higher education, with specific features that give the degree its uniqueness. The uniqueness of the degree will be explored next.

Foundation Degrees: policy and practice

The integration of academic study and work is fundamental to the Foundation Degree model, as emphasized by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Benchmark for Foundation Degrees which expects the programmes of study to be ‘underpinned by work-based learning’ (QAA, 2010, p. 7) and the DfES, who state explicitly that ‘a Foundation Degree is a vocational higher education qualification which combines academic study with work-based learning and experience’ (DfES, 2004, p. 3). Those studying for Foundation Degrees may be seeking to enter a profession, or may have worked within a profession for a while and the qualification is designed to provide opportunities for individuals to engage in lifelong learning (QAA, 2010). The QAA requires that opportunities for progression from Foundation Degrees are identified within individual institutions, with courses normally linked to a programme leading to an honours degree (QAA, 2010).

Foundation Degrees were first announced in February 2000 by the then Secretary of State for Education, David Blunkett, in his ‘Modernising higher education – facing the global challenge’ speech (DfES, 2000). The Foundation Degrees consultation document (DfEE, 2000) identified the qualifications framework offered by the community college model in the United States as a format upon which Foundation Degrees were to be based. This model provides two-year courses focused on specialist technical and professional skills, closely aligned to employer needs and with core skills seen as central for succ...