1. The Scholarship Project:
Mid-term Report
John Lea, Research Director

2. The Scholarship Project - Background Information
£2.75m national project involving around 50 English FE colleges which deliver HE courses;
The colleges represent the full range of HE provision including some beginner and established HE providers;
The project is seeking to raise the profile of College HE by exploring how various forms of scholarly activity can enhance student learning;
3 phases – reconnaissance, trialling and testing, building a scholarship framework which can be adopted by all College HE providers.

3. The (changing) profile of College HE – some early indications
nearly one-third of students were studying on an honours degree;
over two-thirds of students were studying full-time;
nearly two-thirds were between the ages of 18-24;
Nearly 50% of teachers teaching on an honours programme for some of their time;
over 50% of teachers worked on HE programmes for more than 75% of their time;
15% of teachers were fellows of the Higher Education Academy (HEA);

4. (More troubling) context for College HE Managers and Local Employers
under 10% of total college populations were exclusively studying on HE programmes;
50% of managers said under 30% of HE students had progressed from in-house FE courses;
only 5% of managers said that they had exclusive HE contracts for HE staff;
over two-thirds of employers saying not essential that more staff held higher qualifications;
nearly 50% of employers never get involved in design of courses or assessment tasks;
some desire from employers to be more involved with local colleges; one reporting: “We have no end of short design projects/promotional material we'd love students to work on.”

5. The Scholarship Project’s mid-term report
On Students as Scholars… 8 out of 10 (keep up the good work)
Surveys for rather than of… 6 out of 10 (making steady progress)
ITE/CPD as a scholarly exercise… 4 out of 10 (lots of commitment but results a little disappointing)
Employer Engagement as a scholarly exercise… 2 out of 10 (really needs to try harder – more homework required)

6. Getting involved…
The project website:
Consider writing a 1,000 word `think piece’ or `case study’:
contact John Lea:
If you have an idea for something which should be trialled or tested, let us know:
contact the project team: