{"id":4509,"date":"2016-12-21T12:35:55","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T12:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/cel\/?p=4509"},"modified":"2016-12-22T09:25:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T09:25:13","slug":"accelerated-degrees-and-switching-courses-responses-to-government-consultation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/2016\/12\/21\/accelerated-degrees-and-switching-courses-responses-to-government-consultation\/","title":{"rendered":"Accelerated degrees and switching courses &#8211; responses to government consultation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department for Education <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/579438\/Findings_from_the_Call_for_Evidence_on_Accelerated_Courses_and_Switching_University_or_Degree.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">published findings<\/a> from the Call for Evidence on Accelerated Courses and Switching Degrees on 20<sup>th<\/sup> December. This consultation closed in July 2016 \u2013 read <a href=\"http:\/\/intranetsp.bournemouth.ac.uk\/documentsrep\/Accelerated%20Courses%20and%20Switching%20University%20or%20Degree-%20Call%20for%20Evidence.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">BU\u2019s response here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The high number of responses had been noted earlier, the report gives evidence of an interesting campaign: \u201cwe received responses from 44 higher education providers, 24 other bodies <strong>and 4,500 students<\/strong>. Of the responses from students, over 3,000 were from those studying at the Open University, and 150 were from students at Queen\u2019s University Belfast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As with other recent consultations, the low number of individual institutional responses is interesting \u2013 some of the 24 will be from sector representative bodies (read the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.millionplus.ac.uk\/policy\/responses\/millionplus-responds-to-bis-consultation-on-accelerated-courses-and-switching-university-or-degree\" target=\"_blank\">MillionPlus response<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guildhe.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Accelerated-courses-and-switching-universities-GuildHE-response.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">GuildHE response<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>There is no indication of when we will receive the formal response or what will happen next. Given the issues with the student data \u2013 which probably can\u2019t be taken as representative in the circumstances \u2013 and the rather unsurprising results, it will be interesting to see how this is used.<\/p>\n<p>The report notes that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>91% of providers have a formal credit transfer system in place but only a few providers have significant numbers of systems transferring either internally or externally. Most students had a positive experience of transferring.<\/li>\n<li>Students noted that the main reason for transferring (university or degree \u2013 it doesn\u2019t distinguish) was change of subject (79%) with teaching quality highlighted in 38% of cases and location in 21%. <em>Note the source of these responses \u2013 they may not be representative.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>\u201cStudent\/provider perceptions \u2013 there is a perception that a degree is a one-off purchase and logistical, financial and social factors contribute to the decision not to switch. 22% of respondents believed it to be too difficult to switch provider. Large numbers of transfers are seen by some to threaten provider prestige and ability to recruit students\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On accelerated courses:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cA large number of providers report that students on accelerated degree courses are more focused and motivated to complete their degrees than students on traditional undergraduate degree programmes\u201d and \u201cSubjects such as law, business and management are particularly suited to accelerated degrees.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cStaff research activity \u2013 research intensive universities in particular highlighted the need for staff to undertake research or scholarly activity during the summer period, restricting their ability to continue teaching. 30% of providers and other bodies who responded thought it would be difficult to secure staff outside term time\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cStudents\u2019 use of summer vacations \u2013 some respondents noted that students value this time to undertake work experience, paid employment and\/or other activities.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department for Education published findings from the Call for Evidence on Accelerated Courses and Switching Degrees on 20th December. This consultation closed in July 2016 \u2013 read BU\u2019s response here. The high number of responses had been noted earlier, the report gives evidence of an interesting campaign: \u201cwe received responses from 44 higher education&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/2016\/12\/21\/accelerated-degrees-and-switching-courses-responses-to-government-consultation\/\">Read more &raquo;<span class=\"sr-only\"> about Accelerated degrees and switching courses &#8211; responses to government consultation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1475,"featured_media":4511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[308,102,5,369,26],"tags":[25,42,61,70,60],"class_list":["post-4509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-he-students","category-mobile-learning","category-news","category-policy","category-tel","tag-blended-learning","tag-careers-and-employability","tag-higher-education","tag-pedagogy","tag-policy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4509"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4518,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4509\/revisions\/4518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}