Report

Higher, further or tertiary?

This report from UK think tank The Policy Institute looks at the future of education from across the UK nations.

Edited by Professor Alison Wolf, member of the Augar Review of post-18 education, the collection of essays by sector leaders, including current and former university vice-chancellors, looks at how England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland increasingly differ in their approach to university funding and governance, further education delivery, and tertiary policy more generally, as devolution has bedded in.

The collection highlights that while there is a political consensus across the UK on the need for policies that look at academic, technical and vocational education in an integrated way, the rhetoric and reality have been moving further apart, rather than closer together, in recent years.

Higher education enrolments in English and Scottish colleges have declined. There has also been no reversal of the recent trends towards an ever-more youthful undergraduate cohort. And in Wales, bringing all post-16 education under the remit of a new Commission for Tertiary Education and Research may bear fruit – but at present there is very little higher education in Welsh colleges, and little obvious sign of a unified sector emerging.