A foundation degree is a combined academic and vocational qualification in higher education in the United Kingdom , equivalent to two-thirds of an honours bachelor's degree . Foundation degrees were introduced by the Department for Education and Employment in 2000. They are available in England , Wales and Northern Ireland , and offered by universities, colleges with their own foundation degree awarding powers, and colleges and employers running courses validated by universities.
18-398: Foundation degrees must include a pathway for graduates to progress to an honours degree. This may be via joining the final year of a standard three-year course or through a dedicated 'top-up' course. Students can also transfer to other institutions to take a top-up course or the final year of an honours course. It may also be possible for students to join the second year of an honours course in
36-519: A different but related subject. The need for intermediate higher education qualifications that combined vocational and academic elements was recognised in the Choosing to Change report in 1994 and by the Dearing Report in 1997, while the 1999 Delivering Skills for All report recommended the establishment of two-year vocational associate degrees . They were trialled in 2000, at which point
54-542: A place than formal qualifications, and experience is always taken into account. They are intended to give comprehensive knowledge in a subject to enable the holder to go on to employment or further study in that field. They are normally offered by universities and further education colleges working in partnership. They are also offered by some companies (in partnership with an awarding body) as training for employees, e.g. McDonald's in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University . Foundation degrees are at Level 5 in
72-659: A senior civil servant before becoming chairman and chief executive of the Post Office Ltd . Dearing attended Willerby Carr Lane County Primary School before going on to Malet Lambert Grammar School . At the University of Hull , he gained a BSc in Economics in 1954 during a two-year break from the Ministry of Power. Dearing joined the civil service as a 16-year-old clerical officer in 1946. By 1967, aged 37, he
90-463: A system in which credit earned at one institution could be transferred to another. This article related to the politics of the United Kingdom , or its predecessor or constituent states, is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ronald Dearing, Baron Dearing Ronald Ernest Dearing, Baron Dearing , CB HonFREng (27 July 1930 – 19 February 2009 ) was
108-579: The Framework for Higher Education Qualifications , below bachelor's degrees at level 6. Courses are typically two years full-time study or longer part-time, and it is often possible to 'top up' to a bachelor's degree with a further year of study. They are at the same level as the older Higher National Diploma (HND) and Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE); however, they have a different emphasis and can only be awarded by institutions that have received research, taught or foundation degree awarding powers from
126-571: The Office for Students for degree awarding powers. Dearing Report The Dearing Report , formally known as the reports of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education , is a series of major reports into the future of Higher Education in the United Kingdom , published in 1997. The report was commissioned by the UK government and was the largest review of higher education in
144-709: The Post Office Board from 1980 and 1987 and chairman of the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) from 1987 to 1988. He was chairman of Ufi Ltd between 1998 and 2001, and their Sheffield based head office is named Dearing House after him. In 2009, just before his death, Dearing co-founded with Kenneth Baker the Baker Dearing Educational Trust , a charity made to support university technical colleges in England. He
162-678: The Privy Council . According to figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency , over half of foundation degree graduates are in further study six months after graduating, many presumably 'topping up' to a bachelor's degree, and more than 60% are in employment (there is an overlap of slightly over 20% who are both working and studying). Less than 2.5% of foundation degree holders are unemployed six months after graduating. Further education colleges who wish to award their own foundation degrees must apply to
180-592: The Royal Academy of Engineering . In the 1998 New Year Honours , he was announced to be a life peer and was raised to the peerage as Baron Dearing , of Kingston upon Hull in the County of the East Riding of Yorkshire . In 2000, Lord Dearing visited Malet Lambert School Language College , Kingston upon Hull , to open a new building constructed for the use of science and geography, it being named
198-574: The 2001 report which he chaired: "The Way Ahead: Church of England schools in the new millennium". He married Margaret Patricia Riley in 1954. In the 1979 New Year Honours , Dearing was appointed to the Order of the Bath as a Companion (CB) and in the 1984 Birthday Honours , Dearing was knighted and the Queen conferred the honour upon him on 21 August 1984. In 1992 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of
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#1732775469609216-524: The UK since the Robbins Committee in the early 1960s. The principal author was Sir Ronald Dearing , the Chancellor of the University of Nottingham . It made 93 recommendations concerning the funding, expansion, and maintenance of academic standards. The title "The Dearing Report" is also often given to the 2001 report "The Way Ahead: Church of England schools in the new millennium" which
234-434: The government expected 80% of the future expansion in higher education to come from foundation degrees. Foundation degrees were formally launched in 2001 and the first students enrolled at the start of the 2001/2 academic year. Foundation degrees expanded initially, particularly taking market share from other sub-degree qualifications such as Higher National Diplomas , but overall enrollments have declined since 2009. Although
252-696: The number of students studying foundation degrees at colleges has continued to increase, this has not been sufficient to offset the fall in university courses. This has been blamed on a number of factors such as the introduction, in 2009, of student number controls. This limited the number of students that universities could recruit in a year, rather than the total number on courses. The Foundation Degree Forward quango , which had been set up to promote foundation degrees, closed in 2011. Foundation degrees are not general degrees but are focused on specific professions. There are no generally-set entry conditions: commercial or industrial experience may be more important in gaining
270-587: The question of the possible removal of Lord Robens as chair of the National Coal Board in the wake of the damning Davies Report, which found the Coal Board wholly responsible for the disaster, and on the issue of the removal of the remaining tips above the town. He became North East regional director of the Department of Trade and Industry in 1972. He was chairman and chief executive of
288-607: Was chaired by Lord Dearing. The report recommended that undergraduate tuition change from being funded entirely by grants from the government to a mixed system in which tuition fees , supported by low interest government loans, are raised. It recommended expanding sub-degree courses and degree level courses at university, proposing that there was sufficient demand from employers for applicants with higher qualifications for natural growth of higher education. The report also proposed giving teaching staff some amount of training in teaching during their probationary period. It further proposes
306-469: Was later the fifth Chancellor of the University of Nottingham (1993–2000) and the author of the Dearing Report into Higher Education. The annual teaching awards at Nottingham (initiated in 1999) are named after Lord Dearing, as is a more recent series of teaching fellowships. The main education building on the Jubilee Campus is also named after him. The name Dearing Report is also applied to
324-507: Was one of the two deputy heads of the coal division of the Ministry of Power , with the rank of assistant secretary. In 1967 Dearing had responsibility for two major issues arising from the 1966 Aberfan disaster , in which a huge coal waste tip collapsed onto the town of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people including 116 school children. Dearing briefed the then Minister, Richard Marsh on
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