HE in FE - past, present and future

Eve Rapley

University of Bedfordshire

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

Within the post-16 education sector the terms Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) are widely used and understood. Historically, their modi operandi and student population have, to a greater extent, been quite different and have operated in discreet spheres with limited overlap. Traditionally the seat of higher learning, universities dominated the HE landscape with higher education being the preserve of the few, with less than 2% of 18-year olds going to university before the Second World War (Dyhouse, 2007). This figure contrasts starkly to provisional Higher Education Initial Participation Rate (HEIPR) for 2010/11 which indicated that the rate had leapt to 47% (BIS, 2012), clearly illustrating the extent to which the HE sector has expanded since the Second World War. Traditionally universities concentrated on undergraduate and postgraduate provision whilst FE colleges (FECs) focused on vocational and adult education. However, in recent years these two ordinarily quite distinct sectors have coalesced to create a new HE hybrid; that of Higher Education in Further Education (HE in FE). Alternatively, it is referred to in some literature as the Further-Higher sector (Parry, 2009) or as the Mixed Economy sector (colleges that provide both FE and HE provision) (Honeybone, 2007).

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Journal of pedagogic development (Volume 2.0, Issue 2.0)

Publication milestones

Published - 07/2012

Publication status

Published - 07/2012

ISSN

2047-3265

External Publication IDs

handle.net: 10547/336257

Access to documents

HE-in-FE.pdf

Final published version, 480.99 KB

License:CC BY-NC-ND