A Glimmer of Hope

There is now a glimmer of hope for English students when the new £9,000 a year fees regime comes into force next year. It seems that further education colleges are amenable to offering cut-price degree courses for these students – according to this April 15, 2011 report filed in by The Independent.

A survey of more than 30 colleges which receive government funding to run degree courses shows the majority want to charge less than the £6,000 a year minimum fee suggested by the Government. Of the 31 who replied, 19 said they would be charging less – while the rest would opt for between £6,000 and £9,000 a year.

The findings are likely to mean many young people will switch to doing their degree courses at colleges – rather than attend universities with a lower ranking than the elite in university leaguer tables.

Universities Secretary David Willetts has this idea to persuade the FE colleges to act as a franchise for better-known universities – offering students an opportunity to study at them but using course materials supplied to the colleges by well-ranked universities.

These colleges often have lower overheads than universities because of the range of courses they provide and these are in the main, GCSE, A-level and even vocational courses. 

Willetts and Business Secretary Vince Cable have praised the “distinctive value” and vocational emphasis of higher education provision in FE colleges – there are over 260 of them teaching around 160,000 students. Less than half of these are funded by the Government's higher education funding watchdog, the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the rest operate through franchise agreements with partner universities.

These FE institutions are like the colleges we have in Malaysia – particularly those that offer franchised UK degrees although in Malaysia, their partners are, more often than not, bottom-placed universities (e.g. University of East London is ranked # 117; Bolton University is # 116; University of Derby is # 91; and Coventry University is # 87 – to name just four tertiary institutions that are ranked poorly in The Guardian University Guide 2011).

And Taib's day of reckoning in Sarawak has finally arrived. Polling begins today. I remain hopeful.