U-turn on two-year degrees predicted as fears grow over funding
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- 07 Dec 2020
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The government may be forced into a humiliating U-turn on its flagship plans for fast-track university degrees that were designed to soften the blow of paying high fees, experts are warning.
Ministers proposed that universities should be able to charge the same overall for intensive two-year degrees as three-year courses, meaning annual fees could be up to £13,500 a year. The appeal of this is meant to be that students would only have two years of maintenance to fund and they would be able to enter the workforce and start earning sooner.
The policy was a key part of the new Higher Education and Research Act, which was pushed through parliament just before the snap election. But MPs would need to agree secondary legislation in order for fees to go up. Most universities say they couldn’t afford to teach over the long summer holiday without charging students more.
Jo Johnson, the higher education minister, has championed more flexible two-year degrees, despite considerable scepticism in the university sector. But going for a vote in the Commons would be political madness, say higher education experts, especially at a time when the Tories are struggling to woo the student vote, which swung so dramatically to Labour in the general election.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank, says the policy is now highly risky. “The department was reassured by the fact that the Labour party didn’t oppose this part of the bill in the Lords. But that was all before the general election. They [Labour] now have a sackful of arrows to throw at the government, which they didn’t have before. I don’t think opposition parties are ever high-minded, and with vice-chancellors’ salaries and high fees still in the news, this is just too good an opportunity for them to miss.”
Hillman, who was special adviser to the former universities minister David Willetts, says that Willetts wanted to bring in two-year degrees when he was the minister between 2010 and 2014. “The reason we didn’t was that we thought we would never be able to get a majority in the House of Commons voting for a higher fee cap for accelerated degrees. It is even less likely now.”
Prof Edward Peck, vice-chancellor of Nottingham Trent University, agrees: “What Conservative politician would want to raise the issue of student fees again at this particular moment?”
But last week Johnson insisted that the Department for Education would press ahead with the policy regardless of the political climate – and would be consulting on the new fee cap and other issues around implementation shortly.
Johnson told Education Guardian: “Accelerated degrees mean lower costs for students and taxpayers, increased value for money, and faster entry into the labour market for graduates. We know from our research that the demand is there. Both students and employers see the benefits.”
One student who has nothing but praise for her experience of a two-year degree is Elizabeth Sangobiyi, who dropped out of her first degree for personal reasons. She says the opportunity to take a law degree in only two years at Hertfordshire University was what tempted her back into higher education at the age of 21. “I just wanted to get it done faster,” she says.
Two years on, she has now graduated with a first, and already secured a training contract with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, one of the coveted “magic five” law firms. “A lot of people were sceptical about my choice of degree,” she says. “Law students usually apply for contracts in their second year, which meant I had to apply after only one year of results. But I applied to one firm and got the job. If I had my time again I would still 150% choose to study in two years.”
Sangobiyi admits that cramming three years of work into two years was tough, but says that she was prepared for that. “It’s all about making a personal choice of how you want to study,” she says. But she adds that one of her course-mates arranged to switch to the traditional three-year course because he found the pressure too much.
The law school at Hertfordshire is currently the only part of the university to offer two-year degrees. The fast-track degrees cost the same £9,250 annual fee as their three-year law courses, meaning that they work out much cheaper overall. Prof Penny Carey, the dean of the law school, says they are able to do this because they have a flexible structure for their three-year degree, with academics teaching all year round, so that students can join the university and start studying whenever they are ready.
“I do think universities being flexible matters to students,” she says. “We position ourselves as the leading business-facing university and to me that has to mean letting people study and enter the workforce when it suits them.”
Coventry University also already offers some “no frills” two-year degrees at its Coventry University College campus. These are currently charged at £9,000, because this part of the university only charges £6,000 a year for a three-year course.
Ian Dunn, Coventry’s deputy vice-chancellor for student experience, says the main university would be keen to introduce two-year degrees on its bigger courses if higher fees were brought in. He says it isn’t a model that will work for everyone – and it wouldn’t ever replace the three-year degree.
“Students who want to study in two years tend to have significant other responsibilities – caring responsibilities or work. They may be the main earner in the household,” he says. “This is about getting a degree to move your career on and they find a five- or six-year part-time degree just doesn’t fit their life.”
But many vice-chancellors say privately that they have no desire to offer two-year degrees and have no faith that there is a real appetite for them.
One of the main selling points of the new accelerated degrees is that the costs will be less overall because students will have to pay for only two years’ living expenses, instead of three. But Peck says that this is “not entirely clear cut” as students studying this intensively don’t have the same opportunities to do jobs in the holidays. He warns that support for living costs is a major flashpoint for students. “I think the move the government made almost unthinkingly to abolish the maintenance grant and replace it with loans is behind a lot of the discontent from poor students,” he says.
He also believes that pushing older students who have been out of education for some time into shorter degrees may prove a mistake. “They may need time to find their feet – to find their confidence and their voice,” he says. “If you pack all that into two years, I think you may find that the drop-out rate goes up as many are overwhelmed.”
The private Buckingham University is one of the biggest providers of two-year degrees, and it says applications are booming. But Sir Anthony Seldon, Buckingham’s vice-chancellor, says that unless public universities are allowed to charge higher fees for two-year degrees, the new policy will be a flop.
“At the moment there is very little incentive for universities to start offering them, and lots of things to put them off,” he says. “It is a big contractual change for staff to have to teach year-round. It also means you can’t let out your accommodation in the summer. And it’s non-proven. Why would you venture into that if your student numbers were already OK?”
