inTuition taster: Joined-up thinking

The underlying logic and potential value of a tertiary education system are both very clear. At the heart of such a system would be collaborations between further education (FE) colleges, other post-16 education providers and higher education (HE) institutions, within devolved areas of the country. The increased integration and coherence this could bring to what is currently a fragmented, unnecessarily complex system could benefit learners, institutions and other education providers, the UK’s employers, local communities and the national economy.

“There is growing interest in the notion of tertiary education, rather than having FE and HE separated out,” says Dr Vikki Smith, executive director for education and standards at the Education and Training Foundation (ETF). After all, as she points out, FE and HE “are not rivals”. There are some impressive, if isolated examples of local or regional tertiary systems operating in England, but there is no framework for such a system – yet.

Other countries that either already have a tertiary system of some kind, or are seeking to create one, include New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. Efforts to create a tertiary education system are also underway in Scotland and Wales. In Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council, which oversees funding of FE and HE, has worked with colleges, universities and other organisations to create a Tertiary Quality.

In Wales, the devolved government has created the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research, known as Medr (‘skill’ in Welsh). The purpose of this government-backed but operationally arm’s-length organisation is to create and manage a unified regulatory and funding system for the principality’s sixth-form colleges, adult learning providers, apprenticeship programmes, FE colleges and HE institutions.

However, Wales has a relatively small population and a far smaller number of FE and HE institutions than many English regions of comparable size. Creating a tertiary system in England, with its varied regional economies, mixed funding and regulatory systems, and multiple FE, HE and other post-16 education and skills providers, will be a much more daunting task.

The use of competition-based ‘markets’ for students and funding in both FE and HE is one reason for that. While effective in some respects, it has produced unintended consequences within both sectors, including contributing to financial issues within universities, and creating problems for adult education providers.

Chris Millward, professor of practice in education policy at the University of Birmingham (and a board member at Medr in Wales), fears that market forces have pushed out some additional flexibility in the system that used to cater to some learners who were less likely to attend university.

In more recent years, he suggests, governments have attempted to address these problems by creating new pathways to help more young people progress through technical and vocational qualifications and sometimes on to HE. “That’s not a bad thing, but it means you end up with a very fragmented landscape that is difficult for learners to navigate,” he says.

Complementary benefits

James Robson, director of the Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance and associate professor of tertiary education systems at the University of Oxford, lists the three core principles he thinks should be embedded in a strategy for tertiary education: complementarity, collaboration and co-ordination between FE, HE and other education providers. “We need to start talking about a system, rather than a market,” he says. “It’s about using complementarity to create a better set of diverse learning pathways for individuals.”

Smith agrees that complementarity between these two parts of the system should create the most consequential benefit of regional tertiary education systems within a national framework: the creation of clearer, more accessible and flexible pathways through the system for learners, within a culture of lifelong learning.

“Having access to whatever programme you need at the point when you need it, rather than having to navigate different avenues, has got to benefit the learner,” she says. “The key benefit is the creation of better learner pathways.”

The Association of Colleges (AoC) has published a position paper, Opportunity England, suggesting a tertiary system based on joined-up regulation, funding and accountability regimes, and a national post-16 education and skills strategy. Local skills plans would be linked to strategies run by regional authorities, while supporting national priorities such as the green transition, NHS renewal and industrial strategy.

“We’re advocating for a joined-up regulatory, funding and accountability system for post-16 education, and a strategy which allows for some devolved regional strategies,” says Eddie Playfair, senior policy manager at the AoC.

An active role for employers

Smith says a tertiary education system would also need to be linked to the availability of personalised careers advice for learners, with this support provided within schools, then throughout each learner’s journey through FE and/or HE into adulthood.

As called for in the FE + Skills Collective 2024 report, ETF advocates a reform of the National Careers Service to help integrate the different elements of a tertiary education system, and to improve collaboration between the education system and employers. These relationships would enable the education system and careers advice services to be more responsive to the needs of employers within specific parts of the country.

Robson highlights the importance of the role employers would play in such a system. “When we have a properly engaged body of employers contributing to education and training, they’re thinking about skilling for their sectors for the longer term, rather than making demands about short-term skills for very specific roles,” he explains. “The needs of employers are just as diverse as the needs of individuals; and hopefully a better co-ordinated tertiary system would be more able to respond to changes in the labour market.”

He believes such a system would also boost FE colleges’ finances. “A better co-ordinated system comes with better support structures and better funding,” he says. “If you’ve got better conditions for staff that’s going to improve the quality of teaching.”

Smith also believes effective tertiary education systems could benefit teaching staff, with the presence of more motivated learners helping boost job satisfaction. “That’s really important when we have huge recruitment and retention challenges across the whole education sector,” she notes.

Barriers that would need to be overcome include the complexity of the current regulatory and funding regimes. “You’ve got to shift the regulatory environment so it’s conducive to collaboration, not competition alone,” says Millward.

In its position paper, the AoC advocated unified funding systems for adult education, higher technical qualifications (HTQs) and apprenticeships. It also suggested reforming the Apprenticeship Levy to boost participation among 16- to 19-year-olds. Since then, the AoC has welcomed the government proposal to turn the levy into a Skills and Growth Levy, with chief executive David Hughes highlighting the “option to support pre-apprenticeships for young people”.

There are also some cultural issues to overcome. The relative autonomy many universities enjoy – and high status enjoyed by some – is in stark contrast to the situation for many FE colleges. But Millward notes that while some of the most successful universities may seek to focus on international rather than regional priorities, those that are under particular financial strain at present may be more willing to consider the opportunities tertiary education and closer collaboration with colleges and employers might bring.

Collaboration in action

The work of FE, HE and other post-16 education providers that are already co-operating within local or regional tertiary systems could help to guide future developments. In September 2024, Durham University signed a memorandum of understanding, formalising the Durham Learning Alliance, a partnership with four local colleges: New College Durham, East Durham College, Derwentside College and Bishop Auckland College.

Dr Shaid Mahmood, pro vice-chancellor (equality, diversity and inclusion) at the university, says its aim in deepening collaboration with the colleges was linked to broader strategies, including promoting inclusivity, civic responsibility, sustainability and social wellbeing.

“FE colleges have far greater reach and penetration into neighbourhoods and communities in core areas than most universities,” he says. “It was a great opportunity for the university and colleges to explore how we might work together for the benefit of our community.”

Initial collaborations were linked to the introduction of T Levels. Professor Jacquie Robson, associate pro vice-chancellor (taught programmes) at Durham University, explains that she and colleagues in other departments were contacted by representatives from the colleges seeking work placements for T Level students following the launch of the qualifications in 2020.

“We have now centralised how we plan T Level work placements,” she says. “We meet representatives from the four colleges every six to eight weeks and have built strong relationships. We’ve been able to offer placements across subject areas including science, digital, engineering and early years, and we’ve seen T Level students progress onto fantastic pathways, with many going on to further study or higher apprenticeships at universities.”

Mahmood says HE and FE institutions seeking to build collaborations to enable creation of effective tertiary education systems must focus on building strong relationships, and overcoming “hidden hierarchies” between institutions, to harness the huge potential benefits a tertiary education system could offer.

“We need to cut through those barriers and focus on our shared commitment to learning,” he says. “Ultimately, we have no chance of growing the economy in this country if we don’t improve productivity, and fundamental to productivity is skills. Durham University does a lot in the skill space, but it can do even more by working in partnership with these four FE colleges.”

“The idea of tertiary education is very attractive and there are examples of it happening,” says ETF’s Smith. “Whether it can work nationally, and how quickly, is the challenge.”

Case study

LSBU Group

London South Bank University (LSBU) has created a unique network of institutions to form a self-contained tertiary education system: the LSBU Group. Its other members are Lambeth College, a gateway institution that includes ESOL and adult education provision; the new London South Bank Technical College; and South Bank Academies, a school and a sixth-form college specialising in technical and professional education and training.

David Phoenix, outgoing vice-chancellor of the university and CEO of the group, says it has taken “10 years of negotiation and debate” to create. He says the aim has been to focus on “the learner, not the institutions”.

“The idea was that each of these entities would specialise within their own field, but that the group would join everything up by working with employers to create educational pathways that would allow people to step on and off at almost any level they wanted,” he explains.

Admission and achievement statistics are very positive, as are Ofsted judgements and the university’s national and international rankings (it is listed as third in the world for reducing inequalities for 2024 in the University Impact Rankings produced by Times Higher Education). The group is also now one of the largest apprenticeship providers in the country and was named the best university for apprenticeships in 2024 by The Apprenticeship Guide website.

Phoenix estimates that about 10 per cent of the UK’s universities are considering development of some sort of tertiary system, judging from the number that have contacted the LSBU Group seeking to learn from its experience. He says he can see the advantages of a nationwide framework within which regional tertiary education systems can operate.

“You need to facilitate via government but not seek to control it if you are to help people in a region discuss what makes the most sense for those institutions and learners,” he says. “You’ve got to create a system that focuses on the learners.”

David Adams is a freelance journalist

Views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SET.