Donald Hiscock | Articles | Community College Week
British Colleges
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the
standard of education offered at British universities is, well, pretty damn
good. No one really doubts that what you get from one of our ancient institutions
of academe is a solid, rigorous educational grounding in your chosen discipline.
We talk about ‘going up’ to university
to ‘read’ a particular subject and then three years later ‘coming
down’ with either a ‘first’, ‘second’ or a ‘third’.
And of course what happens in between are probably the best years of your
life. You will have made new friends, been influenced by the brightest minds
of a generation and will be set up for life.
But hang on a minute. Who am I actually describing?
In a golden age of expansion of higher education provision in this country,
just what kind of student follows this neat journey of opportunity and enlightenment?
Not many of the students that I teach.
Just go back and take a look at the second paragraph
for a moment (sorry, I know it sounds like you’re on the receiving end
of one of my classes but bear with me.) It uses the language of the past;
it conveys a mythical view of university life. But most of all it hints at
the sad old British problem, namely class.
We live in an age of mixed metaphors and, more
importantly, mixed opportunities. All universities award degrees called second
class honours, and no one stops to question the term. Even when you are classified
according to whether you receive an ‘upper’ or a ‘lower’
second. It is tradition, borrowed from our ancient colleges of Oxbridge. But
what’s wrong with tradition I hear some of you Americans ask. Well it’s
all right in its place. However, the world of post-compulsory education in
the early 21st century is definitely the wrong place.
What has happened in recent years is a great opening
up of university courses. Many more young people are encouraged to take up
places at degree level. New courses have been designed with today’s
changing work skills in mind. The providers of learning have offered flexibility,
help with finances and accepted students on potential rather than past –
often limited – attainment. Sounds very democratic doesn’t it?
Widening participation in all areas of education
is a clarion call from the government’s Department for Education and
Skills, the big push in Blair’s second term of office. His education
minister, Estelle Morris, has said that by the end of the decade “50%
of young people should have the opportunity to benefit from higher education
by the time they reach 30 years of age.” This view is currently riding
high with those of us who work in the British further education (F.E.) sector.
The F.E. sector has always found itself in a kind
of buffer zone, simply because it deals with students aged 16-19, past the
compulsory age for education but working towards either university entrance
qualifications or vocational certificates to equip them to obtain skilled
employment.Sounds simple? But, this is Britain, so it isn’t. Let me
explain. Briefly.
What you have at F.E. is a very mixed bag of things.
In one corner nestle the sixth-form colleges, really an extension of schools
for the fairly able students pushing towards university. These colleges tend
to be smiled upon by the traditionalists, the staff are better paid and the
ethos is generally academic. However, in the rest of the bag are the mainstream
colleges. They are trying hard to do a good job for all their students despite
lack of funding and often low staff morale.
It is these colleges, however, who should be at
the very centre of what Ms Morris and her government are hoping to achieve.
Are you getting the picture, as this is becoming a piece about the social
attitudes of the British? There is a kind of class division in the very sector
that stands to change the face of education in this country. Many people look
down their noses at vocational education and, indeed, the whole notion of
working your way bit by bit to your educational goal.
“ A broader range of young and mature people
must see higher education as the next natural step in their lifelong learning.
We must raise aspirations and improve achievement amongst those who have not
hitherto seen higher education as an option for them, particularly the lower
socio-economic groups. This is not about lowering standards in higher education
but about widening opportunities for a broader range of students,” says
Estelle Morris.
However, there are entrenched views that are opposed
to such expansion of higher education. These views follow the notion that
more students from all areas of society means a dumbing down of standards.
At the back of all this is one very important attitude that lurks in the minds
of many in Britain: that education is about jumping very high hurdles and
those who reach the finish line are the elite. In other words (no nasty metaphors
this time), education is about failing many and only allowing a few to succeed.
Hey, how can we all be winners?
But what do we want from our students? Surely the
best for all. Don’t we want a workforce with the appropriate skills
for us to compete in world markets? Don’t we want breadth, so that the
technician is also the artist, the philosopher the practitioner? Doesn’t
this sound too dangerously socialist?
Funnily enough, it is this crazy democrat utopia
that I find so attractive about the US community college system. If you didn’t
have to pay to be there it would be truly wonderful. However, it is a decent
model. So what are we so scared of on this side of the pond? Many F.E. colleges
in Britain are now delivering what we call Foundation Degree courses. These
last two years and lead to stand-alone qualifications or credits for full
degrees at universities. There is even talk of merging the further and higher
education sectors and funding them as one entity.
But it all comes down to muddled (or muddied) thinking.
We want good education for all but we also want our children to have it better
than anyone else’s. We want the past and we want the future; tradition
and change.
Even Tony Blair likes to have his cake and eat
it. One of his sons has recently been receiving private tuition even though
he attends a highly regarded grant maintained school in London. Maybe he wants
his lad to get into the ‘right’ university, get the ‘right’
class of degree and end up with a ‘proper’ job.
There are mixed messages about education in this country. Actually, about as many as there are mixed metaphors.
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