Union warns that Assembly must close funding gap with rest of UK, reports Melanie Newman
The Welsh Assembly has been urged to close the funding gap between universities in the principality and the rest of the UK or risk causing "long-lasting damage" to the sector.
The warning comes in a letter to a task force on the future of Welsh higher education, from the University and College Union.
The UCU also says that the sector must not lose sight of its core mission of adding to the world's knowledge and understanding rather than focusing on its value to Wales' economy and culture.
An Assembly task force is reviewing the purpose and role of higher education in Wales with a view to updating Reaching Higher, the Assembly's strategy for the sector. A report to the task force said that the funding gap between universities in Wales and England was £61 million, and a report by Universities UK on the effects of devolution last month warned that England was moving further ahead of Scotland and Wales in terms of research income and student numbers.
UCU regional officer Margaret Phelan said: "My personal view is that the Assembly is hoping reconfiguration will streamline things and save costs. Personally I haven't seen any evidence that collaboration leads to savings.
"As a union we will support the reconfiguration agenda so long as changes are managed properly and staff are not made compulsorily redundant."
The UCU is also concerned about the sector becoming too narrow in focus. Its submission says: "The Government must make a very clear statement in any future version of Reaching Higher about the core mission of higher education in Wales; it must not and cannot be solely limited to the contribution of higher education to the Welsh economy and culture."
The core mission is "adding to knowledge and understanding for the benefit of all", it says.
The review, which follows an earlier look at student finance, is due for completion in spring 2009.
Last November, the Assembly revealed plans to scrap the £1,890-a-year grant to all Welsh students who study in Wales.
It proposed that a "significant proportion" of funding be redirected to help students from low-income families from 2010.
The independent review panel that made the recommendation, chaired by Merfyn Jones, vice-chancellor of Bangor University, had said the current system was not the best way to attract more people to Welsh universities.
A consultation on the proposals ends on 16 February.
Wales being left behind, says UCU
Public-private mix? The debate rumbles on
WIll privatisation in higher education mean compromise to corporate demands, or is it time state institutions got some competition?
While some of the UK's banks have been put in public hands, how quickly are the country's universities heading the other way — towards the private sector? Higher education institutions worry that quality could suffer in the pursuit of profit. Private higher education providers counter that a little competition would be a good thing.
Of Britain's 325 institutions offering further and higher education, only one, the University of Buckingham, is private. This contrasts with the US, where approximately 25% of its higher education institutions are out of state control. Buckingham, which has topped student satisfaction surveys for the past three years, gives students the chance to do a three-year degree in two intensive years and with flexible start dates. It is also the only UK university that receives no direct subsidy from the government, thereby remaining academically independent.
But one area of education that is raising concerns about privatisation in Britain is the recruitment of international students, that lucrative source of funding that covers, on average, 8% of universities' budgets.
The private company Into University Partnerships has already set up centres catering for international students within five British universities. The Into Centres at the University of East Anglia, Newcastle University, the University of Manchester, the University of Exeter and Glasgow Caledonian University recruit international students and teach them English to the standard required for undergraduate study.
But their presence has raised alarm at the University and College Union (UCU), the UK's largest trade union and professional association for academics and other university staff. The UCU is worried about how quickly universities are moving into public/private partnerships. "Our strategic focus is on making sure that the in-house alternative is always being considered in this dash for international students," says a UCU spokesman.
Dr Thomas Kealey, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, believes private universities have a lot to offer: "Every other university in this country works solely to government targets. The government gives them money, and therefore they do whatever the government wants. We exist primarily to provide a good experience for our students. As Karl Marx once said, we live in a world of economic determinism, and our economic success is determined by our students' satisfaction. The other universities' success is determined by how much they please the government."
In France, the public education system was shaken up by a profound policy change in 2007. For the first time, President Nicolas Sarkozy allowed its publicly funded universities to set up foundations enablerto attract funding from private and corporate sources. Last June, the University of Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand became the first institution to set up a private foundation, helped by the presence in the city of the Michelin tyre manufacturer.
Meanwhile, the rapid growth of online learning has already given for-profit companies a route into higher education. In 2007, BPP Professional Education, a private education provider that specialises in accountancy and law courses, became Britain's first for-profit company to be given degree-awarding powers.
"BPP is looking to expand its online provision, and why wouldn't you?" says the UCU spokesman. "It's the most fantastic and cost-effective education. The more closely private companies get entangled with universities, the more closely they will develop online learning at the expense of other forms of learning."
BPP is following the example led by Kaplan, the education subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. As well as giving a million students worldwide campus-based and online study, it owns Dublin Business School (DBS), Ireland's largest private higher education institution. DBS already runs degree programmes that are sponsored by business, notably the Lidl discount supermarket chain. In a twist to conventional funding, its "Lidl degree" in retail management pays the student a wage during the three years, from €16,000 to €20,000, with the proviso that he or she works for the company later.
DBS chief executive Gerry Muldowney told the Irish Times: "I thought it was a great opportunity. It was reaching out to a target group of potential students who would not have gone to college otherwise because they probably wouldn't have been able to afford it." In these tough economic times, it could be a sign of things to come.
Mary Novakovich
Lack of education for prisoners serving longer sentences
Inmates serving four years or more are missing out as training is geared towards those serving shorter sentences
Prison education is failing to meet the needs of people serving longer sentences, according to Ofsted.
While most jails are running training programmes for offenders detained for a year or less, the inspectorate has identified few if any with learning strategies for those inside for four years and more.
Programmes are designed around the average lengths of stay in particular institutions and do not suit prisoners who stay for longer or who move on to another jail, Ofsted finds.
The absence of a national system for recording offenders' progress severely hinders their chances of continuing to advance when transferred to another institution or when they are freed, conclude two reports by the inspectorate into education for long- and short-serving offenders.
Ofsted's chief inspector, Christine Gilbert, said: "The learning needs of long- and short-term offenders are particularly challenging and complex, but it's crucial their needs are met and every learning opportunity is fulfilled."
She called for "greater overall consistency in the provision of learning programmes and a national system for recording data, so that offenders are given every opportunity to progress and develop their skills during the period of their custody and on release".
Roughly two-thirds of those in prison have poor literacy or numeracy, or both. A good range of programmes is available when individuals' needs are identified, Ofsted has found. Some courses concentrate on reading, writing and arithmetic, and other vocational programmes – catering or physical education, say - include these basic skills in their training.
But the great majority of prisons report high numbers of offenders nearing the end of long sentences who still have poor literacy and numeracy. Although staff in most prisons recognise that poor basic skills hinder eventual job prospects, it does not seem to be realised that they also prevent offenders getting the full benefit of other vocational and social activities while inside.
"In particular, learning and skills strategies do not recognise the need and benefit of improving these skills to a level where other programmes, such as offending behaviour programmes, become more accessible and beneficial," says the report into offenders on longer sentences.
"They do not give sufficient emphasis to the benefits of developing these skills early on in an offender's sentence."
Ofsted wants the Learning and Skills Council and the National Offender Management Service to find ways of improving literacy, numeracy and language programmes.
More account should be taken of the limitations on offenders on short sentences, many of whom are also on drug and alcohol detoxification.
In general, prisons need systems for diagnosing offenders' individual learning needs more quickly and accurately, the inspectorate recommends.
Prison education too often fails to build on offenders' existing skills and what they have picked up previously during their sentences, the report's compilers found on visits to 19 prisons.
"Advice and planning was predominantly focused on what was available in that prison rather than the long-term needs of the offender," says the report.
This tended to be designed around the average sentence in the prison and longer-term prisoners quickly exhausted what was on offer. This is a particular problem in open prisons.
"In one prison the curriculum repeated every six weeks and many offenders on long sentences had attended what was available and were left with few opportunities to develop further," the report notes.
Inspectors found little opportunity for prisoners possessing level 2 qualifications (five good GCSEs or the equivalent) to go further, though in "better prisons" there were some opportunities for them to work as peer mentors or train as guidance workers.
All of the prisons visited offered distance-learning programmes – Open University degrees, for instance – for inmates with the ability and time to do them. But above level 2, these are not usually publicly funded. Offenders need to pay themselves or find the fees from charity.
In each of the prisons visited, between 20 and 50 offenders were on distance-learning programmes. The better prisons gave them effective support, providing a dedicated study room with tutor support and computers.
Working alongside professionals
At first glance you would assume that all the men learning how to install and repair gas cookers and boilers were prisoners, but you would be wrong.
Some of those working in pairs and small groups have come from outside.
In an arrangement probably unique in the prison system, inmates at HMP Spring Hill in Buckinghamshire are able to do training courses alongside professional plumbers and tradesmen who have popped in to update their skills.
"This course has given me a qualification which I can use to get full-time employment as a gas fitter," Paul, one of the first prisoners to be offered a place on the scheme, told the Ofsted in-house magazine. "The future for me now is positive. I am looking forward to coming out of prison and going straight."
Colin Wilson, an engineer based in Watford, only realised he would be training inside a prison alongside prisoners when he turned up to start his course. "It makes no difference to me, I treat everybody the same," he said. "All the guys here get on and we learn a lot off each other."
The prison provides free premises for a training company on the understanding that prisoners can take advantage of its courses, which include training for jobs in the health and leisure industry.
A gym and fitness centre, being built by prisoners using bricklaying skills they have been taught at Spring Hill will be open not just to trainees from outside but also to members of the public. The gas training centre was also built by prisoners, saving public money. There are plans to develop a facility for an agricultural college, enabling prisoners to train for careers in farming and horticulture.
Spring Hill, Britain's first open prison, houses 334 male prisoners, most serving between four and 10 years, but some doing life and preparing to resettle into the community. Every morning, up to half leave the prison for college or to work for local businesses – either on placement or as full-time, paid employees.
Prisoners are encouraged to pursue a range of courses, from cookery to music technology, run by Milton Keynes College.
Ofsted inspectors have commended this "entrepreneurial" approach and "outstanding partnership working" that has enabled Spring Hill to develop its wide range of employability programmes.
"The more ways we can help prisoners to learn, the better," says Andy Woodley, head of learning and skills at the prison.
"Giving prisoners the skills they need to find meaningful employment after release means they are much less likely to reoffend. Our reoffending rate is just 5%, compared to a national average of 70%. We feel we are making a difference."
