This Month's Contents

Conference update - FACE 2009

FACE 2009

Towards a New Agenda for Lifelong Learning:
Access, Diversity and Participation

1st -3rd July, Staffordshire University

Full conference details are available on the FACE CONFERENCE 2009 web page.

Registration can only be made online ONLINE REGISTRATION FOR FACE 2009

Papers and workshop presentations are sought on any or all of the conference themes. Papers and workshops should address the over-arching theme of a new agenda for lifelong learning. ONLINE ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM

FACE 2009 Gala Dinner

The gala dinner evening held annually during
conference is rightly famous and for the gala
evening at next year's conference the musical
entertainment will be provided by the . . . . .

Rachel Rimmer Band

Acoustic Jazz

Hear the music of Rachel Rimmer on MySpace

. . . . and that's not all because on Wednesday evening the entertainment will be provided by

"The Outlandish Knights"

Folk Rock / Acoustic Folk / Ceilidh

Hear the music of the
Outlandish Knights
on MySpace

Early Bird Bookings

All bookings made prior to the 28th February 2009 will receive a free copy of 'Marginality and Difference in Education and Beyond' edited by Michael Reiss, Renee Depalma and Elizabeth Atkinson published by Trentham books at £18.99

Conference Organisor, Peter Jones 01782 294941 pete.jones@staffs.ac.uk

As a member-oriented organisation FACE would like to invite individual colleagues to have their say on any issue of concern in UK education policy and practice. This is a purely personal point of view and should not be thought to represent any institution, organisation, or official body. To have your say, email James.Tate@uwe.ac.uk

This month's contribution is from Nick Davy commenting on the recent HEFCE Paper, ‘A New University Challenge’.

A key element in widening access to HE is in increasing opportunities for local HE; the recent HEFCE Paper, A New ‘University Challenge’: consultation on proposals for new higher education centres identified several criteria for the establishment of such centres:

• Unlocking the potential of towns and people, including Widening Participation
• Driving economic regeneration:
• Ability to deliver, including management capacity

However, there is no reference in the paper of the role of the potential HE in FE teaching staff. One would not expect a paper of this type to discuss conditions of service issues but it seems astonishing that one of the key elements in the successful delivery of HE in FE – the role of teaching staff - are omitted. Management and governance capacity though is crucial. This omission is worrying on several counts, as it reduces from the outset the importance of:

1. The need for staff development.
2. The need for research and scholarly activity policies
3. The emphasis on Higher Skills development implying significant partnership working with employers
4. The teaching workload for staff teaching both HE and FE

It seems that yet again the FE sector has been ‘chosen’ to meet another government education and social priority without a serious discussion about what are the training and support needs of the professionals expected to deliver. Don’t worry about the inputs – just look at the potential outputs, economy not efficiency.

However, in many large HE/FE partnerships around the country it is exactly these issues that are being addressed – the development of HE/FE subject and practice academic communities, mentoring schemes and support for small scale action research projects – as they are viewed as the key requisites in the successful delivery of HE in a FE context.
No doubt some of the leaders of the FE sector will argue in their usual gung ho approach that, “we can deliver” omitting, “if you give us the tools”.

It would be interesting to have the views of HE in FE teaching staff in general and particularly on the proposed HE Centres.

Nick Davy
Westminster Kingsway College
Nick.Davy@westking.ac.uk