Flexible Learning Pathways in British Higher Education: A Decentralized and Market-Based System. Report for the IIEP-UNESCO Research 'SDG 4: Planning for Flexible Learning Pathways in Higher Education'

Overview & Synopsis

This report forms part of an international project, led by UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), on higher education's role in supporting "flexible learning pathways." Flexible learning pathways in higher education provide routes to the acquisition of knowledge and skills at different life stages, to meet the different needs and circumstances of the learner. They can involve boundary crossing between different sources of knowledge, different subject fields, different institutional providers, and different forms of learning. Pathways can take learners on journeys through expanded and differentiated higher education systems and beyond. This report draws on the perspectives of national higher education bodies and a range of institutional providers of higher education to identify current policies and practices concerning flexible learning pathways in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) higher education system, though with a main focus on the system in England. Information was gathered from the available literature, from interviews with representatives of national higher education bodies and senior members of universities, and from national datasets of higher education students. The project examined degree structures, admissions at different degree levels, and the flexible entry pathways that were available. The report is structured as follows: (1) an overview of the UK national higher education system and its diversity and differentiation; (2) system-level approaches for supporting flexible learning pathways and the values and aims that inform them; (3) flexible learning pathways in practice, with case studies from two universities, Birmingham University and Teesside University, plus overviews of developments at two other universities, Exeter University and the Open University, along with national student data from all institutions; and (4) conclusions and recommendations for policies and practices for flexible learning pathways in higher education. [For "Flexible Learning Pathways in British Higher Education. IIEP Country Note. No. 8," see ED617201.]