'Overhaul foundation degree structure'

The funding of and regulations for foundation degrees need to be overhauled if government targets for boosting skills and widening participation are to be met, policy-makers have been warned.

Foundation degrees should be playing a pivotal role in driving up standards in the critical mid-skills labour market as well as encouraging more people to enter higher education, said David Robertson, head of policy development at Liverpool John Moores University.

In a Social Market Foundation lecture, Professor Robertson said this might mean introducing differential fees for foundation degrees and honours degrees to give an incentive for a cheaper foundation degree route.

The main driving force behind the changes should be the further education colleges, rather than universities, he said.

* The particular needs of sixth-form colleges and the important role they play in post-16 education and training often go unrecognised by policy-makers, Leicester University researchers have found.

About 200,000 16 to 19-year-olds are educated in sixth-form colleges each year, with many achieving good exam results and going on to take a place in higher education.

But researchers at Leicester's educational management development unit have discovered that colleges are underfunded and overstretched compared with school sixth forms, some receiving more than 40 per cent less funding than schools.

* Iain Gray, Scotland's new enterprise, transport and lifelong learning minister, will warn next week that Scotland's key challenge in widening access is to "shift the stubborn low-participation rate" of those from the poorest and most deprived groups.