Liberal Democrats

The Key to Life-Long Learning

Policies for Further and Higher Education


Extending Life-Long Learning


Education must be a life-long activity from which people can benefit at any time in their lives. Liberal Democrats are committed to lifelong learning. We recognise that the sector is underfunded, and lacks co-ordination and strategic direction. We must build upon the excellence of our universities and colleges to make lifelong learning a reality.

Qualifications

We would:
* Provide the funding to allow any adult the chance to acquire a Level 2 qualification. We will fund those aged 16-24 up to Level 3. In the long term, our goal is to extend this further entitlement to every adult. All those on these courses would be entitled to a student loan to cover maintenance, depending on their income.
* Give every person an Individual Learning Account for lifelong post-school education and training with contributions from the state, students, their families and employers. Contributions from the state would be at least equal to the costs of tuition on approved courses up to and including undergraduate level.

Guaranteeing Quality

We would create a strategic regional framework for commissioning education and training provision up to, but not including, undergraduate level. Funding currently provided at the national level would be coordinated at regional level through the regional Learning and Skills Councils and under the direction of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), or the Scottish Executive, Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies. We would:
* Expect RDAs (or Assemblies) to produce a 'Lifelong Learning Action Plan' in partnership with training organisations, trade unions and business where appropriate. Provision would be commissioned through University for Industry and existing local partnerships.
* Create a single regional Lifelong Learning funding body with common audit and accounting procedures to remove the disparity of funding between providers in the post-16 sector.
* Encourage Further and Higher Education providers to widen access by allocating funding through 'Access Units' which recognise the added cost of recruiting and supporting disadvantaged students with few qualifications.

Investing in Education

Liberal Democrats propose a Learning Investment Partnership to generate more funds for further and higher education:
Government Contribution: Increase the level of state funding in tertiary education and ensure that the state funds the tuition costs for all approved courses up to and including first degree level.
Employers' Contributions: Companies to make an investment in education and training.
Individual Learner Contributions: If we are to widen access and maintain and enhance the quality of education, individual students and their families will need to pay for some of their maintenance support. 





Further Education

We would:
* Extend the principle of local management to post-16 education, whether undertaken in further education, sixth form or community colleges.
* Establish a new system of governance for FE colleges that includes representatives of the new RDA partnership including LEAs, students and lecturers.
* Introduce greater democratic accountability of the further education structure by transferring the powers of the national decision making body to regional government.
* Enhance the professional status of the lecturing profession, including:  introduce a new pay structure for all FE lecturers based on a system of salary steps, and require that every lecturer meet independently assessed minimum levels of professional competence.

Higher Education

We would:
* Provide the tuition costs for all approved courses up to and including degree level, including part-time students and those studying through the Open University.
* Introduce a Student Fee Entitlement available to anyone accepted on to a higher education course. This would pay for the equivalent of one year's study and be renewable, subject to academic progress, for up to a maximum of four years.

Student Financial Support

To introduce a more flexible and fair system, we would:
* Raise the salary level at which student loans are repaid from £10K to £13K in the first instance.
* Restore access to benefits for all full and part time students from the age of 16, including: access to Housing Benefits, and entitlement to Income Support.
* Establish the principle that in the longer term all students would be treated equally, whether part-time or full-time, up to first degree level.

Staff and Student Participation

For both further and higher education Liberal Democrats advocate :
* Ensuring staff and student representation on governing bodies and internal committees.
* Making all governing body decisions public, except those concerning individuals and those where publication would damage the institution's prospects or competitive position.
* Giving academic staff and students the right to express publicly opinions on policies and procedures in their institution, and to draw attention to irregularities, without victimisation.
* Providing effective complaint procedures for both staff and students.


Policies stated in this briefing represent policy passed by the conference of the Liberal Democrats. A fully costed manifesto containing our priorities for government is published at each general election.


This briefing contains extracts from Policy Paper 18 The Key to Lifelong Learning, and the Policy Review Paper, Moving Ahead - Towards a Citizens' Britain.
February 2001				Produced by the Policy Unit.

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