Bring back ‘polys’ call to improve job skills

THE Government should bring back polytechnics in a major revamp of higher education that would also see universities given extra cash to admit poorer students, according to a new report.
Leeds Metropolitan University was once a PolytechnicLeeds Metropolitan University was once a Polytechnic
Leeds Metropolitan University was once a Polytechnic

It suggests that a move to restore the old polytechnic name would help to raise the status of vocational qualifications.

The study also calls for radical reforms to boost the numbers of disadvantaged students who study for a degree.

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This could include allowing top universities free reign on the numbers of poorer young people they recruit, and handing institutions a £1,000 “student premium” for each one admitted onto a degree course.

The report by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, published by the IPPR think tank, examines how higher education can expand and change.

It calls on the Government to revive the name “polytechnic”, which was dropped after the Further and Higher Education Act was passed in 1992.

At that time polytechnics were given powers to award their own degrees, becoming new universities.

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But the Commission’s report argues that so-called “polys” should be brought back, in a bid to carve out a place for institutions that focus on high level vocational qualifications.

It suggests that there are currently around six large further education colleges where the majority of students are studying for higher education courses, like foundation degrees, that could be eligible for polytechnic status.

“Polytechnic status would be a mark of vocational excellence, sending out wider signals about the importance of vocational learning,” the report says.

“It would declare that the university title and the university route are not the only form of high status in our system.”

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Nigel Thrift, chair of the Commission and vice-chancellor of Warwick University said: “Polytechnic status would carve out a distinctive place in our tertiary education system for institutions that focus on providing higher level vocational qualifications.

“While many universities also provide such qualifications, a different title would protect a distinctive role for higher vocational learning that was lost in 1992.”

The report recommends a new “student premium” similar to the government’s pupil premium scheme, which sees extra money attached to poorer students which is paid to their school to help raise their results.

Under the Commission’s plan, universities would get an extra £1,000 for each student who has received free school meals, or is from an area where few go on to higher education. This money would be spent on extra support for these students and initiatives to encourage more to apply.

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About 230,000 students currently studying at English universities would be eligible, and this would increase over time, the report says.

It would initially cost the public purse £230m, rising to over £460m as the number of disadvantaged students at university double, it adds.

The scheme would be paid for by reallocating funds and scrapping the Government’s National Scholarship Programme which aims to help disadvantaged students.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said: “This is a useful contribution to the debate on how to maintain and improve the reputation of our world-class university sector. It includes much food for thought.

“However, the alternative undergraduate funding models that are discussed would cost more for families, taxpayers and graduates while doing nothing to improve the student experience.”

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