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Chair's Annual Report


 

 

Chair's Report for 2010 - 2011

This report was presented at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held during the FACE conference at University of Glasgow.

 

Introduction and Context

In the introduction to my report to members last year, I made the point that we were all awaiting two pieces of information. First, the report of the Browne Review on HE funding and student finance, and second, the outcome of the comprehensive Spending Review. A year on, and we know the contents of both these, but are still left waiting. This year it is because the much awaited and much speculated over White Paper, which is to be published imminently. In fact, it may be published by the time you get to read this report, which will be annoying to say the least on my part, but as I say, we have been here before. What can be said is that the combination of the Browne Report and the CSR have delivered HE into unknown territory.

Internationally, the level of public investment in UK HE is set to become among the lowest in the OECD. Although this level of disinvestment in HE is explained by the Coalition Government in large part because of the austerity measures they have introduced to deal with the financial crisis, there has been no indication that when this comes to an end, public investment will return. Indeed, I am not aware that any of the main political parties have made such an undertaking. Add to this the tripling of tuition fees, with most universities in England expected to align their fees with the upper limit of the £9k figure set by the Coalition Government. The net impact of this on the treasury through the level of loans will, in the opinion of a number of financial commentators, prove unaffordable. It will be the job of the White Paper, presumably to come up with measures, both of dealing with the additional costs, and a means of controlling demand. The Office for Fair Access (OFFA), UCAS Tariff and core/ margin have all had at different times surfaced in the governments pre-White Paper kite flying. So, we will have to see what the White Paper brings. The cuts in funding for teaching, announced by the government for almost all subjects will effectively mean that this will come to an end by the 2014/15 academic year. Combined cuts of around 80% in the teaching budget are expected over the next four years.

In the wake of this enormous and, in my opinion, substantially irreversible change, the role of FACE becomes ever more important. Discussion at the FACE Executive has, for example, highlighted the value of FACE in putting forward the views, concerns and alternatives to policy changes which are likely to be detrimental to the agenda of HE participation and inclusion that FACE members and institutions support. The challenge to be an effective voice on behalf of members is ever present in the discussions of the Executive. Given the context, I have sketched out this will be an even bigger aspect of the work of FACE over the coming year. This year we have worked hard to take forward the six key aspects of this role which are:

The mix and emphasis of these aspects of our role will, I am sure, vary but between them they provide a very important strategic role for FACE to develop.

Before I leave the context which FACE is operating in, it is critical to note the UK situation. Essentially, in relation to HE access and lifelong learning, we have been seeing a divergence of policy and approach between the four countries in the UK. In comparison to England, for example, the position of Scotland and Wales is not to charge students anymore. In Northern Ireland, students are also unlikely to face a rise in fees. So we are continuing to see significant differences in HE policy in different parts of the UK. However, for a UK wide organisation like FACE, the need to be a forum for all to come together to exchange experience and practice has perhaps never been greater. The role of the FACE Executive is particularly important in this, and we currently have representation from all parts of the UK which means Executive meetings have the benefit of contributions from all four countries. The FACE Executive will keep a watchful eye on this and build this into planning going forward.

Summary information on the main aspects of FACE’s operational work follows. As ever, it will only be possible to give a small amount of information on each of these, but hopefully this gives an update of both progress and issues since my last report to members.

 

Executive Committee

I am enormously grateful as ever to all members of the Executive for all their work and commitment to FACE throughout the year. As chair, it has been a great pleasure to work with members and FACE is fortunate indeed to have such dedicated and conscientious Executive Committee.

The range and quality of debate at Executive meetings reflects the collective experience and expertise of members. This year, two sub-groups were created to progress respectively membership and the annual conference 2012 host institution. Thank you to all those members who kindly took part in the sub-groups. Executive meetings are very busy events with packed agendas. The topics and issues regularly appearing on the Executive’s agendas include the following:

The fast changing HE landscape for FACE members and institutions has meant that the Executive has continuously looked very carefully at how it can best support and represent members concerns and interests and what this means for the services we provide and the role we play. As a result, we have refocused a number of our activities and services and will continue to do this over the coming year.

All Executive Committee meetings have been hosted by the University of Westminster and we are grateful to Executive member Graeme Atherton for organising this.

 

Members Support and Services

Member support and services continue to be central to what we do as a network, and our ability to retain and recruit members and our capacity to make our voice heard. The enormously challenging financial position that members and their institutions have been and will continue to face means that we will not only have to deepen our understanding of members needs but to be able to respond to these in an appropriate and effective way. The summaries give a snapshot of the work and issues in each of FACE’s areas of operation.

These contacts have taken a variety of forms and involve Executive members in different capacities. As Chair, for example, I was invited and spoke at the AoC national conference: HE in FE and also wrote a formal letter to the Times Higher Education highlighting the decision to end the Aimhigher programme. The Executive see this as a major priority area over the coming year, and is very much part of the six strategy steps listed earlier.

In addition to UK focussed external relations, FACE has also worked hard on its international partnerships and links. This year, Executive members Tony Acland, Mike Hill and myself represented FACE at our sister organisation in the USA, NADE. The FACE delegation played an active role in the NADE Annual Conference 2011, which took place in Washington DC. Thank you to Mike and Tony for their input and also to NADE for the warm reception we enjoyed. We look forward to welcoming the NADE President Elect to our annual conference.

We have maintained close contact throughout the year with the Swedish INCLUDE network for WP and will also be welcoming a representative to our annual conference.

Finally, I was invited to represent FACE at the French Continuing Education Network annual conference. Thank you to the network’s president for the invitation, who will also be attending this years Glasgow conference.

The 2011 conference will be hosted by the University of Glasgow, and we have also selected out annual conference host for 2012, the University of Ulster.

Two very successful FACE seminars took place during the course of the year which were both a response to changes taking place in policy and funding for HE access and widening participation. Executive member Deirdre Lynskey led a seminar at the University of Liverpool entitled, ‘Navigating the System: How Universities can learn from Aimhigher to make outreach count’; and Executive member Graeme Atherton organised a second seminar at the University of Westminster with the title, ‘Can universities still widen access?’

These were both well attended and supported events bringing FACE members and others together to share experience and practice around key issues for HE access and participation. It is intended that these seminars will feed into an ‘Access to HE’ summit event, which the Executive is looking to organise for later in the year.

 

Concluding Comments

Perhaps more than any other year, I can recall this year has witnessed the start of a programme of public disinvestment in HE in England on a scale unprecedented and with consequences which are irreversible. The impact on HE access and participation for those less likely to have the opportunity is for the most optimistic members, uncertain, and for many more set to jeopardise the progress that has been made, and could well put widening participation in full reverse. As I said in the introduction, we are all still awaiting the detailed policy from the white paper, but all indications are that the withdrawal of public funding for HE will be replaced by private sector investment and of course student fees. With graduate debt levels expected to rise to £70billion by 2015, the impact on HE access for low income students will be enormous. FACE as a member driven network will need to work closely with members against the backdrop of changes I have outlined. The work to develop services, the strong financial position noted and the strategic thinking of the Executive, I strongly believe, means that we are in a good position to support members and their institutions as they adapt to these enormous changes and the effects they are having on access, widening participation and lifelong learning.

In doing this, we need to be a confident and proactive network looking to build membership and collaborative partnerships. We need to develop and improve services and align these to the changing needs of members and their institutions. There is therefore an opportunity for FACE, in the ways mentioned, to become a more influential and challenging organisation, whilst continuing to deliver member services and be what has always been and that is the Forum for Access and Continuing Education, FACE.

John Storan, Chair of FACE

Signature

John StoranContact Details

Professor John Storan
University of East London
(Tel) 0208 223 2643 (Fax) 0208 223 3394
j.storan@uel.ac.uk

P.A. to John : Nicola Stephenson N.Stephenson@uel.ac.uk

 

 

Chair's Report 2009/ 2010

Chair's Report 2008/ 09  |   Chair's Report 2007/ 08  |   Chair's Report 2004/ 05  |   Chair's report 2003/ 04

 

 

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