The big news today is that the Browne Review is out – Securing A Sustainable Future for Higher Education.
The coverage isn’t very focused on part-time provision, but obviously that’s the most interesting bit for us at the Open University. So here’s a quick summary.
The headlines for part timers:
- Part-time students will be eligible for loans to cover the upfront costs of fees. [At the moment, they are not.]
- They will have to study at an intensity of 1/3 FTE to be eligible for this support – that’s 40 points a year minimum in OU terms. [From memory, average OU study intensity is closer to 60 points a year, but we do have many students who take just one 10-point course.]
- Part time students will not be eligible for support for living costs.
Here are the significant parts of the report that touch on part-time provision:
Doug Clow's Imaginatively-Titled Blog 