Business secretary outlines plans to save money in educational institutions by dividing teaching and examining
Money-saving plans to separate teaching from examining in higher education are to be outlined by the business secretary, Vince Cable. The proposals would allow new institutions to teach students for degrees that would be then awarded by prestige universities.
Cable, who is keen to lift restrictions on the growth of private universities, will use a speech next week to throw his weight behind the proposals from the higher education secretary, David Willetts. They are seen as one way of cutting costs in advance of a fraught review into the lifting of caps on university tuition fees, which is likely to take place in the autumn.
All universities would be offered the opportunity to teach to an externally set, globally recognised exam. One by-product of this would be the emergence of a new breed of private universities.
All English and Welsh universities founded between 1849 and 1949 offered University of London external degrees, before they received charters to award degrees of their own.
Willetts has said that in harder times "institutions that chose to offer external exams could deliver robust standards – in which employers already have confidence. They could expand straight away, without having to establish from scratch a reputation for their own degrees."
Cable is also looking at how, in other countries, non-traditional higher education institutions (HEIs) can widen participation, reduce costs and raise standards.
Willetts argued: "It could be easier to guarantee this if new HEIs also had access to the security, quality-assurance and reputation that comes with externally examined degrees. And there could be a real competitive challenge to universities."
Both men think externally set degrees are a way to boost opportunities for students who cannot move away from home.
The business secretary has also agreed that Labour's plan for half the population to go to university should be scrapped.
The issue of university tuition fees is highly sensitive for the coalition as the Liberal Democrats are committed to phasing out fees over six years, while Willetts has indicated that undergraduates may have to pay more to attend university.
The coalition agreement settled on a compromise, allowing Lib Dem MPs to abstain on the issue.