BrilleBristol Centre for Research in Education and Lifelong Learning

Developing FurtherHigher education

Ann-Marie Bathmaker, UWE Bristol

Keynote presentation

UWE Federation 1st Annual Conference

The Student Journey

1-2 May 2008

UWE Bristol

AcknowledgementsThis presentation is based on work contributing to an ESRC TLRP project entitled Universal access and dual regimes of further and higher education.The research team comprises:Diane Burns, Anne Thompson, Val Thompson, Cate Goodlad (University fieldwork research team)Andy Roberts; David Dale; Will Thomas; Liz Halford (Institution based researchers)Ann-Marie Bathmaker (BRILLE, UWE), Greg Brooks, Gareth Parry (University of Sheffield), David Smith (University of Leeds) (Project directors)Karen Kitchen (Project administrator)

Overview

Why Further-Higher Partnerships? Why now? Issues in Further Higher partnerships Seamlessness, transitions and

progression What is ‘higherness’? Concluding comments

WP, dual sector institutions and further-higher partnerships

Policy imperative to widen participation in HE in context of ‘knowledge economy’

2 tertiary sectors in England:LSC/FE sector and HE sector

‘Dual sector’ FE/HE institutions Further-Higher partnerships

The FurtherHigher project asked

How do students experience transitions between further and higher education, and between different stages of undergraduate study (level 5/6)?

FH project fieldwork Fieldwork in 4 dual sector institutions Transition between level 3 (FE) and level 4

(HE) AND between level 5 (2 yr HE) and level 6 (final year UG degree)

Interviews with students, tutors, institutional, managersdocumentary analysiscollection of fieldwork observation recordsphotographs of space and place

FurtherHigher education

What is the scale of activity? How important is transition

between level 3 and level 4 (FE to HE) and between level 5 and level 6 (short cycle HE to final year Bachelor degree) for institutions that are ‘dual sector’ or in FE/HE partnerships?

Student progression in 4 case study institutions: studying within institution, studying at another institution, not continuing to study

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

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Citygate College Northgreen Federal College East Health College Southleigh University

Subject/Vocational area and Institution

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Staying

Moving

Don't Know

Not continuing Study

SUMMARY TABLE 2

OVERALL INTERNAL TRANSFER FROM FE LEVEL 3 TO HE COURSES AT CITYGATE COLLEGE

2003/2004TOTAL TRANSFER TO FOUNDATION DEGREE TRANSFER TO BATCHELOR DEGREE TOTAL %

867 76 57 133 15.34%

2004/2005TOTAL TRANSFER TO FOUNDATION DEGREE TRANSFER TO BATCHELOR DEGREE TOTAL

973 74 63 137 14%

2005/2006TOTAL TRANSFER TO FOUNDATION DEGREE TRANSFER TO BATCHELOR DEGREE TOTAL

1209 54 29 83 6.86%

Total numbers in column B were arrived at by deleting all first/ second year entries for all multiple yearprogrammes.

All internal transfers from FE level 3 to HE courses at Citygate College from 2003/04 to 2005/06

Note: Even though Citygate College is a dual sector institution with approximately 60% HE / 40% FE provision, FE/HE transfer nos are small

Internal transfers from HE level 5 (Fd degree, HND) to Bachelor degree final year at Citygate HE College from 2003/04 to 2005/06

????????No data collected at present

(Not a key management concern or priority?)

HE transitions: a site study example

Sports Therapy at Citygate College Citygate College is an HE sector

institution with substantial FE The College offers:

BTEC National Diploma in Sport (Sport Development and Fitness)FdSc in Sports TherapyBSc in Sports Therapy

Student transitions and progression

How do students get on to and progress through a Foundation degree and a BSc in Sports Therapy?

Getting in Getting on Moving up Getting a BSc

Getting in to a Foundation degree – using official sources 40 degrees in Sports Therapy are listed

on the UCAS website (BSc and FdSc) 10 institutions offer FdSc in Sports

Therapy Only 7 listed on the Foundation degree

forward website On the UCAS website, Sports Therapy

search under Foundation Degree and Bachelor degree listings brings up NO courses. Sports Therapy courses can only be found by keying Sports Therapy into the general SEARCH menu option.

University College Birmingham

Link: Univ of Birmingham

UCAS pointsFdSc: 100 BSc: 200

Progression routes offered 3rd year of BSc in Sports Therapy at the college

Milton Keynes College

Link: Univ of Bedfordshire

UCAS points: 80-120BSc at Univ of Bedfordshire: 160+

Progression routes offered 3rd year of BSc in Sports Therapy at the University of Bedfordshire

Truro College Link: Univ of Plymouth

UCAS points: 60-80

Progression routes offered BSc (Hons) Performance and Coaching, offered by the University of Plymouth at Truro College

Selection of Sports Therapy Foundation Degrees offered for 2008 start (1)

North East Surrey College of Technology (NESCOT)

Link: Univ of Kent UCAS points: not specifiedBSc at Univ of Kent: 200-300BSc at Univ of Bedfordshire: 160+

Progression routes offered Links with Univ of Kent and Univ of Luton (the Univ of Luton is now the Univ of Bedfordshire, but appears as Univ of Luton on NESCOT website). Both run BSc degrees in Sports Therapy

City College Plymouth

Link: Univ of Plymouth

UCAS points: 80

Progression routes offered Subject to specific requirements, you may progress to:• the final year of the BSc (Hons) Health and Fitness degree at the University of Plymouth • the final year of the BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy degree at the University College of St. Mark & St. John• the final year of the BSc (Hons) Fitness and Coaching degree at the University College of St. Mark & St. John• final year health and fitness degree programmes at a range of universities• a wide range of careers in the health, fitness and sports therapy industries.

Selection of Sports Therapy Foundation Degrees offered for 2008 start (2)

No. of Students

Y2 BTEC National2003-04

8

Internal transfer to FdSc Sports Therapy

3

Internal transfer to BSc Sports Therapy

1

Getting in to a Foundation degree: internal progression

Total numbers taking BTEC National Diploma in Sport in 2003-04 at Citygate College

No. of Students

Y1 2004-05

39

Y2 2005-06

30

Completed FdSc

27

Getting on: moving through the Foundation degree (internal progression)

Total numbers taking FdSc in Sports Therapy at

Citygate College starting 2004-2005

Final year BSc students

No of students

From FdSc Sports Therapy

22

From Y2 BSc Sports Therapy

41

From Y3 BSc Sports Therapy (repeat year)

1

Total students 64

Moving on to the BSc: internal progression

Students in Y3 of BSc Sports Therapy at Citygate College in 2006/07

Degreeclassification

FdSc/BSc students BSc/BSc students

# % # %

1st 0 0 4 11

2.1 6 30 15 41

2.2 8 40 14 38

3 6 30 4 11

Total 20 100 37 100

Completion of BSc: Final outcomes of students in Sports Therapy at Citygate College in 2006/07

Student transitions and progression: issues Finding a Foundation degree through official

external sources is complex The college internal BTEC National programme

is small. 50% continued to FdSc or BSc, but 50% was only 4 students.

On the FdSc there was attrition between start and completion (from 39 to 27).

Progression to BSc was high, (22 out of 27) but 5 students did not continue.

Degree results for BSc/BSc students were comparable to national HEI benchmarks. They were lower when the FdSc/BSc students were included.

Bridging the gap between level 5 and level 6

Official provision is a 3 day bridging summer school after the end of Y2. Philip Smith, Sports Therapy lecturer explains:“They all have a handbook, a Student Handbook, and that outlines the progression for them. There is a bridging Summer School as well between Year 2 and 3 which is only 3 days, but basically that’s to give the Foundation Students an idea of what a dissertation is, more training and support before they even start a dissertation.”

Students’ perceptions of ‘bridging’

Tanya:“Well we had that 3 days. That was the sort of preparation, but even so I don’t know if it really sort of - it was kind of general and, I don’t know really how much I got out of that. I think I was expecting to get more out of it to be honest and sort of learn more about - we were sort of told more or less how important the dissertation was and not really that much more.”

Students’ perceptions of ‘bridging’

Sarah:

“a bridging course thing for two days, but it wasn’t just about dissertation, it was like…. I’d say about two hours of it or something and the rest was boring. I think it was for three days and on the third day we didn’t turn up because it was that pointless. It was like we could have just come here in Year 3 and not had the bridging thing and we would have been totally fine. The stuff they were telling us we should have already known from Years 1 and 2, things like referencing or things like essay writing or report writing - and we’ve been doing it for two years now and so why are you telling me again, over two/three days - no. So the third day we just didn’t come in - or we went to one dissertation talk.”

The mystery of transition to final yearTanya:

“There’s a man who’s come in and talked about dissertations if we’re going to come next year, he said you’ll have to do that. Yeah that was good as well to get some ideas going around our heads, because he said “don’t leave it all to the last minute”.

But she said later:“I think it would be very useful if we knew now what we were going to do, what sort of books, we could all be putting a bit of effort in now. But we probably won’t get the reading lists til we’ve been here a month. We should get it in the first week….”

Being pro-active about transition

Rosemary:“We all got given tutors about 3 weeks ago if you hadn’t already got them, whereas I went to see the tutor that I’d wanted before the summer. I phoned him up and then basically I’ve been seeing him a couple of times throughout the summer and then mainly every week now since we’ve been back, so he’s keeping me on track. He’ll just set me little things up, get so many words done by the following week, so it keeps it constant.”

How do students perceive ‘higherness’?

Higherness is “harder” More intense A lot more work Stricter deadlines Harvard referencing Writing 2000 words The DISSERTATION

How do students perceive ‘higherness’?

Requires more independence Independent study and self-

direction No ‘spoon-feeding’ More independent research Using the library a lot more Less individual support

How do students perceive ‘higherness’?

More distant relationships with others

Much bigger classes Different atmosphere: not so close

knit Lecturers less approachable Doctors and professors: lofty and

straight-laced

What is ‘FurtherHigherness’? Harder, but (possibly) progressively

harder, with Y1 of FdSc not too big a jump, particularly from level 3 vocational courses

Range of support available, esp study skills centres. Overlapping FE and HE support facilities

Closer relationships with some course tutors – evidence that students seek out someone they trust to help them

Concluding comments

FurtherHigher education: The wider impact of developing higher education in the context of dual sector institutions and further-higher partnerships.

Redefining the field

Changing the configuration of the landscape of HE

Increasing diversity Increasing complexity Increasing stratification

Reshaping student engagement and opportunities?

Complex picture of student experience and interaction with HE opportunitiesAccess, progression & outcomes are not straightforward, smooth and seamless

Dual sector HE and further-higher partnerships in HE can be seen as enabling and constraining (both opening up opportunities and cooling out aspirations)

We must strive to ensure that FurtherHigher higher education is high quality higher education.

The FurtherHigher Project

http://www.shef.ac.uk/furtherhigher/

brilleBristol Centre for Research in Education and Lifelong Learning