Foundation Degrees

I had a look at Foundation degrees earlier this evening; I wanted to make sure that they really existed and were not a figment of someone's imagination. For a cost of about £330m between 2001/2 and 2005/6 I was definitely hoping that they were not.

The government's website, as follows:-

Foundation Degrees

Apparently this is the first new higher education qualification for 25 years; it is a 2 year course full time, or somewhere beyween 2 and 4 years if taken on a part-time and/or distance basis, can be done at work and is con-funded by employers. It is relevant to the world of work, rather than just the world of academe.

I had a look to see whether my own University, the Open University does Foundation degrees; yes, in fact they do. What I am saying is that anything that can be done by the Open University, which is a very discerning institution, cannot be all that bad.

The most important part of what I have to say is, that, why cant foundation degrees be integrated into the lifelong learning movement in any case. Why does it have to be that the government is saying that we must trim £100m of the lifelong learning budget but that does not include foundation degrees.

We should be looking to expand all forms of lifelong learning and not favour one form of learning over the other. What about some joined up thinking from this government, rather than divide and rule?