For all the talk of so-called “challenger institutions” being tasked with shaking up the status quo and tackling the complacency of universities in recent times, there’s been precious little mention of the HE-in-FE sector.

As Education and Training Foundation (ETF) research revealed last summer, one in 10 higher education students actually attends a college. And these colleges open up degree-level qualifications to learners for whom going to a distant university is not an option. The ETF found that the average distance of an HE-in-FE student’s home from college was 17 miles, compared with 52 miles for a university student.

Another little-known fact about the success of HE in FE is that in recent times it has almost always been colleges that have topped the annual National Student Survey (NSS) tables of satisfaction levels among learners.

In the latest table, four colleges - Newbury College, Richmond Adult Community College, St Mary’s College in Blackburn and Trafford College - received the maximum rating of 100 per cent satisfaction, with colleges claiming eight out of the top 10 positions.

While, of course, the small scale of college-based HE in comparison with universities goes a long way towards explaining this trend, the figures also reflect colleges’ many successes in this field.

But this year’s set of figures could end up looking quite different. With the NSS taking place this month, the number of participants is expected to be severely reduced by the NUS students’ union’s boycott of the survey.

The NUS argues that the results will be used to justify HE institutions increasing their tuition fees from September, and it hopes that the boycott will prevent this.

‘A worse deal’

The University and College Union (UCU), representing teaching staff in colleges and universities, has backed the NUS. It warns that the introduction of the teaching excellence framework - which could allow top performers to increase their tuition fees in line with their performance - will lead to a “worse deal for students”.

The UCU has also vowed to “defend the right of staff to express a position of support for the NUS action so long as they fulfil their contractual duties in respect of the NSS”.

Quite what impact this action will have on the NSS results - and the performance of colleges - remains to be seen. But this issue will be well worth keeping a close eye on over the coming months.

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