Tertiary journeys: how do students navigate third-cycle education institution partnerships in the UK?

This study explores student journeys across progression pathways between FE colleges and Universities across the UK. It will investigate how far current tertiary governance systems have afforded education institutions capacities to collaborate. There has been recent growing interest in tertiary collaboration as one aspect of moving towards a more unified tertiary system. The devolved tertiary landscape of the UK nations ranges from novel unitary systems such as the new Welsh unitary commission for tertiary education, Medr, to more fragmentary governance landscapes and regional coordination as in England.  Advocates of unitary systems promise opportunities for flexibility and progression for students via holistic coordination across FE and HE. Others worry that the emergence of multi-sector institutions is the result of increased competition for diminishing national resources.

Examples of such collaboration include integrated vs non-integrated partnerships between HE and FE institutions, or 2+1 articulation agreements. There is however little student voice on the range of such existing partnerships. Students’ motivations, the sorts of pathways available to them, and the outcomes they are achieving, are all currently obscure. This research project aims to inform discussion around what can be achieved through HE and FE partnerships by bringing a sample of student voices into the conversation.