Leading Article: Degrees of difference
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.You may not have known it, but the Government has been having a debate on the future of higher education for the past year. Last week's plea by the Universities Secretary, John Denham, for universities to offer more vocational degrees was part of his contribution to summing up what has been going on.
It makes sense, particularly as we slide deeper into recession. It will not only be the "new" universities that put on such courses. There will be some "old" universities that will want to do so as well, so we are not returning to an era of the polytechnic divide, as some observers have maintained. At the same time, the Russell Group and 1994 Group of universities will heave a sigh of relief that the minister favours keeping research concentrated in the academically elite institutions in spite of the results of the 2009 Research Assessment Exercise, which showed a broad range of universities doing better.
The real challenge to universities will be to organise a credit accumulation and transfer system to make the system much more flexible, and to enable students to take credits at different institutions and come out with a degree at the end of it. Other countries have been doing this for a long time, so what is stopping the United Kingdom?
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments