guidelines for he in fe: learning resources Kathy Ennis Senior Adviser Department of Knowledge & Information

fe college survey 2003 The presence of higher education students in further education colleges places additional demands on the library in terms of, for example: learner support; the number and range of learning materials required; the cost of appropriate learning materials; the level and range of services; the opening hours. UK Survey of Library and Learning Resource Provision in Further Education Colleges 2003, CILIP

continued In all the data collected there was no correlation between the number of higher education students and library provision within a college UK Survey of Library and Learning Resource Provision in Further Education Colleges 2003, CILIP

guidelines CoFHE Guidelines  guidelines for further education colleges: recommendations for learning resources (february 2005) higher education provision in further education colleges  CILIP website  nce/post16/heinfe nce/post16/heinfe

content introduction delivery operation context indicators of good practice  funding  agreements  strategy, planning and liaison  quality assurance  relevance of learning materials  availability and accessibility  copyright and licensing  human resources

case study 1 A further education institution with a combination of directly and indirectly funded provision A large college, with many years experience in the delivery of higher education courses, has some 700 higher education students. Of the 700, 445 are directly funded; the remaining students are on indirectly funded courses, linked to three different higher education institutions. Two of the three higher education institutions are located at some considerable distance from the College; the third is in the same city. The courses provided include Access and Foundation programmes, degrees, higher degrees, professional courses and Foundation degrees.

recommendations Include: funding allocation models should be sufficiently transparent to provide managers of library and learning resources services with a clear indication of the level of resource funding allocation models should include the facility for new, and increased, provision to be resourced without any diminution of resource for existing provision

case study 2 Further Education Institution Agreement with a Higher Education Institution HE students in this FEI are a mix of directly and indirectly funded. All students are entitled to use the learning resources facilities of the College, including the right to borrow 10 items at a time (FE students can borrow 6). Interlibrary loans are provided when approved as essential by teaching staff.

case study 2 contd … Indirectly funded students experience a wide variety of support from the parent HEI. All have the right to reference use, which is of limited value where the HEI is at some considerable distance from the College. Students on some courses are entitled to borrowing rights and access to electronic resources and interlibrary loans from the HEI to which they are linked. The college has had to produce a chart listing some 13 courses associated with the three HEIs. Each course has differing entitlements and facilities available from their HEI, something that causes confusion for students and learning resources staff. The important lesson is to ensure that senior managers in college are made aware of the crucial importance of negotiating sensible and consistent rights for HE students, when developing new courses

recommendations include agreements must specify the responsibilities of both the higher education institution and the further education institution agreements must specify the services, and the levels of those services, provided by the higher education institution to the further education institution

Kathy Ennis Senior Adviser Department of Knowledge & Information