Lower higher education

This blog was kindly authored by Gavin Moodie, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Department of Education, and Leesa Wheelahan, Professor Emerita & William G. Davis Chair in Community College Leadership Emerita, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Oxford Department of Education

Unfortunately, not everyone uses higher education terms as carefully as the Higher Education Policy Institute. In particular, the National Centre for Social Research used ‘university’ and ‘higher education’ interchangeably in its recent report on British social attitudes on higher education.

A finding that attracted much attention is responses to the statement:

A university education just isn’t worth the amount of time and money it usually takes

Twenty per cent or fewer respondents agreed with statement in 2005, 2010, 2013, and 2018. But this increased sharply to 34 per cent in 2025. The authors state:

Clearly, the perception that higher education is a worthwhile endeavour, while still supported by a majority, has declined over the past two decades.

But, of course, the respondents responded to a statement about university education, not higher education offered by non-university higher education providers or colleges.

In 2024 some 132 non-university higher education institutions, and 145 of 213 English further education colleges offered higher education or were on the Office for Students’ register of English higher education providers. Some of these programs are the familiar degrees at level 6 of the framework for higher education qualifications, but many others are foundation degrees or higher national diplomas at level 5, or higher national certificates at level 4. Many of these higher education qualifications are more practical or vocational than university degrees.

The British Social Attitudes Survey asked respondents:

What do you think should be the maximum amount per year that students or their families are asked to pay towards university or college tuition – or should there be no limit to what a university can charge?

It thereby left open the question of whether there should be a limit on what a college or indeed any other higher education provider may charge. The authors titled the table reporting responses:

Views on maximum amount per year students or families should be asked to pay towards university

Twenty-eight per cent of respondents said £0, but interestingly 22 per cent of respondents agreed that there should be no upper limit on what a university can charge.

England’s difficulties financing university education are shared with variations by other UK nations and by other countries, that are transitioning from mass to universal higher education.

Further education colleges’ higher education is financed at a much lower rate than universities’ baccalaureates. This is partly because colleges aren’t funded to conduct research, though they have very important local roles in disseminating knowledge and fostering innovation. But even colleges’ higher education teaching is funded at a much lower rate than university undergraduate teaching.

While UK further education is clearly funded too low, English higher education would be greatly diversified in curriculum and financing if further and higher education were considered as diverse parts of a single tertiary education system, as they are increasingly in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and many other countries.

A more ‘joined-up’ tertiary education system could open opportunities for students, rather than restricting them to particular types of education – for example, we were at a seminar recently where some young people asked why their T-Level would not be recognised for admission to elite universities.

Rather than seeking to redirect students away from universities, lifelong learning policies could emphasise pathways between different types of education and between colleges and universities. We must find continuities between different forms of education, rather than insisting on their (often putative incommensurable) differences. All qualifications need to provide students with access to the knowledge they need to navigate their careers and lives, even if their emphasis differs in the ways in which they do this.

This may be done by recognising that all post-secondary qualifications have four purposes, while acknowledging that different types of qualifications fulfil these purposes in different ways:

1. Individual, to develop individuals’ agency to live lives they have reason to value, and to contribute to their families, communities, society, and occupation;
2. Educational, to develop graduates’ and society’s understanding of theoretical, abstract knowledge;
3. Occupational, to develop graduates’ individual and work groups’ collective productive capacity; and
4. Social, to advance society, and social justice and inclusion.