I have discovered this little gem from the government's own Higher Education White Paper 2003. As it is all in the public domain I shall reproduce it in full:-
1.27 And this is true not just of work-focused provision. Our system is not good enough at offering students real choice about how they learn. Higher education should be a choice open to everyone with the potential to benefit – including older people in the workforce who want to update their skills. There are not enough choices for flexible study – including part-time courses, sandwich courses, distance learning, and e-learning – and there must be an increasingly rich variety of subjects to study, which keep pace with changes in society and the economy.
White Paper On Higher Education
Taken from the governments White Paper on Higher Education {2003},
Chapter One (The Need for Reform). Accessed 21st October 2007.
This part of the report, shows a real confusion with what is exactly going on with the actuality of the provision which is already out there and the government's perception of the provision.
Everything within the paragraph is most assuredly being carried out by the Open University and Birkbeck College and other like minded institutions, yet there is no real recognition of this within the paragraph. And the bit about encouraging people to study, including older people within the workforce - how is this going to be achieved by withdrawing funding from the very institutions that are doing most to foster this credo?
The government's failure to recognise what is being done within the part-time sector of education is very alarming indeed. The sooner that they can stop being myopic about what is really beimg achieved with this sector, the better all round I would have thought. It is presumably attitudes like this which have led this government to withdraw funding from the OU and Birkbeck without a second's thought.
One last question, how informed is this government about higher education? Answers would be gratefully received.
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