We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to withdraw the instruction to HEFCE to cease funding for students undertaking study for equivalent or lower level qualifications (ELQ).”
Details of Petition:
“We do not believe that this policy is necessary but is actually harmful to the Government’s objectives of widening participation. This policy will not only affect part time, mature students as individuals but will penalise most those universities that have successfully supported lifelong learning, exacerbate the under funding of part time students in general and threaten the range and development of curriculum for all students, but again particularly part time students. We believe the ELQ policy is a crude and ill considered method of redistributing HE funds based on limited and flawed knowledge about the part time students who will be most affected on a ratio of 10:1 compared to full time students. We are not reassured by promises that current students will not be affected. This policy will cause long term damage and far beyond the boundaries of England and N Ireland and will represent a massive set back to all the espoused benefits of embedding lifelong learning into our culture.”
Read the Government’s response
The Government believes the redistribution of one third of ELQ funding is necessary to increase and widen participation. Over 20,000 new students will be able to enter higher education that would not otherwise be supported. Many of these students are likely to be mature, part-time learners at higher education institutions which have successfully supported lifelong learning. The allowance for part time students is increasing by £30 million in the formula for funding institutions. In addition, we have introduced the most generous package of student support ever offered to part-time students, with fee grants of up to £1,150 per year available. Prior to this Government, no support of any kind was available for part-time students.
No existing students will be affected by the policy and no institution will see a reduction in its grant as a result of the redistribution of ELQ funding. Over two thirds of the current level of grant for ELQ students will continue to be invested in supporting them in 2010-11 and we have not made any decision to further redistribute funding after that date.
The Open University is an enormously valuable institution, and we have no doubt that it can meet the challenges of the 21st century.
There are six million adults who have A-Level equivalent qualifications but who have not yet gone onto degree level. It is right that they should be our first priority.
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