It’s slightly unnerving that the government is apparently taking FE seriously all of a sudden, don’t you think? Not only did the sector get a prominent shout out in education secretary Justine Greening’s Conservative Party conference speech, it also even got a mention from the PM, who croaked about the exciting new “technology institutes” (between coughs). Shame she got the name wrong (it’s “institutes of technology”, dahling), but marks for effort.
FErret, of course, was into FE when it was still underground, long before it sold out to the man and went mainstream. Accordingly, he’s pretty suspicious of any newcomers who claim to have always loved FE. Where were you during the capital funding crisis of 2009, eh?
In any case, it appears that the national press is starting to show some interest. On Monday, The Times lauded the “win-win” expansion of degree apprenticeships, which are now on offer through Russell Group universities Leeds and Birmingham. This, the newspaper pointed out, could “motivate fee-paying students, who on average graduate with £50,000 of debt, to scrutinise whether their course is providing value for money”.
Boosting the MBA?
But should it be taxpayers who end up footing the bulk of the bill for this? The issue was brought even more sharply into focus by a report in the Financial Times which revealed that a number of business schools are expanding places for MBA students being funded through the levy. Manchester Metropolitan University, for one, is launching a levy version of its two-year, part-time MBA in January - with fees expected to sit at around £17,800.
That’s a lot of money that the government’s spending on training an experienced business executive. As Paul Baines, a professor at Cranfield University’s School of Management, puts it: “The MBA has been struggling for the last few years, particularly since the credit crunch, when many companies cut back on sponsoring their staff. The apprenticeship levy creates a new opportunity for us.”
But is this an opportunity that taxpayers should be footing the bill for? FErret is not convinced.
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