I think we're going to see more bespoke about the higher education provision and find universities flexing what they offer making it more flexible and more part-time, great job courses with companies, more sponsorship by companies, changing the curriculum vitae, its have been a real challenge for the higher education sector. We're going to see in the coming years is more work while you learn or learn while you work, namely a mixed market of people supporting themselves through earnings and learning at the same time. The Majority of companies in this country believe that we should be in a reformed Europe that is more relevant to the European citizen and to businesses across the single market. Skills shortage has been a really big issue in the UK, even at a time when the economy hasn't been growing in areas like engineering . When it comes to financial support, I would love to see a resurgence of sandwich courses. I think it's regrettable that the idea of spending a year in industry as part of a graduate degree has actually weakend. It won't be sandwich courses as i remember them, it won't be a fixed year, but using sandwich courses as an collaborative course, where there's more direct work experience, more practical studies as part of the degree, i think its really valuable.
Large companies can develop quite sophisticated research relationships with universities, but medium sized companies are the engines of growth of the economy and I think most universities would say its harder for medium-sized companies that have fewer resources to develop sophisticated relationships. The Conclusion of university in the department of BIS has been good for higher education. Three issues are:
- Focus on part-time provision.
- Part-time provision has been the cinderella of the education system.
- To ensure the university funding system and the relations with employers work for postgraduate students.