The Scholarship Project Midterm Report John Lea Research

The Scholarship Project: Mid-term Report John Lea, Research Director 23. 11. 16

The Scholarship Project - Background Information • £ 2. 75 m national project involving around 50 English FE colleges which deliver HE courses; • The colleges represent the full range of HE provision including some beginner and established HE providers; • The project is seeking to raise the profile of College HE by exploring how various forms of scholarly activity can enhance student learning; • 3 phases – reconnaissance, trialling and testing, building a scholarship framework which can be adopted by all College HE providers.

The (changing) profile of College HE – some early indications • nearly one-third of students were studying on an honours degree; • over two-thirds of students were studying full-time; • nearly two-thirds were between the ages of 18 -24; • Nearly 50% of teachers teaching on an honours programme for some of their time; • over 50% of teachers worked on HE programmes for more than 75% of their time; • 15% of teachers were fellows of the Higher Education Academy (HEA);

(More troubling) context for College HE Managers and Local Employers • under 10% of total college populations were exclusively studying on HE programmes; • 50% of managers said under 30% of HE students had progressed from in-house FE courses; • only 5% of managers said that they had exclusive HE contracts for HE staff; • over two-thirds of employers saying not essential that more staff held higher qualifications; • nearly 50% of employers never get involved in design of courses or assessment tasks; • some desire from employers to be more involved with local colleges; one reporting: “We have no end of short design projects/promotional material we'd love students to work on. ”

The Scholarship Project’s mid-term report • On Students as Scholars… 8 out of 10 (keep up the good work) • Surveys for rather than of… 6 out of 10 (making steady progress) • ITE/CPD as a scholarly exercise… 4 out of 10 (lots of commitment but results a little disappointing) • Employer Engagement as a scholarly exercise… 2 out of 10 (really needs to try harder – more homework required)

Getting involved… • The project website: https: //www. aoc. co. uk/enhancing-scholarship-in-collegehigher-education-the-scholarship-project • Consider writing a 1, 000 word `think piece’ or `case study’: contact John Lea: John_Lea@aoc. co. uk • If you have an idea for something which should be trialled or tested, let us know: contact the project team: projects@aoc. co. uk