Local MP Justin Tomlinson has asked Ministers to look into reforming university course to deliver better value for students and the taxpayer.
Justin's call for action came during an Urgent Question on Higher Education Funding in Parliament and the North Swindon MP cited the issue of many university courses being overly long. Currently some courses which could be covered in two years stretch on to last three and sometimes four years. These courses do not always provide the highest quality of teaching and mean that additional costs are passed on to students.
In response the Minister said that, while there were some isolated examples of universities providing intensive degree courses, more needed to be done.
Text of Justin's question, and the Minister's reply
Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon): Value for money is key and far too many degrees are unnecessarily long. What efforts are being made to offer shorter, more intensive degrees to reduce the final tuition fee bill
Joseph Johnson: There are excellent examples of two-year programmes across our higher education system, such as those offered by the University of Buckingham. It is not alone—there are others. We want many more providers, including high-tariff, highly selective institutions, to start to offer two-year programmes. They have huge potential to access students who have been hard to reach by the higher education system. We will come forward with proposals very shortly to enable the rapid expansion of two-year degrees throughout our system.
