Meeting 9/12/11. The Council is invited to note the contents of the paper. There are no decisions arising from this council paper.

Transcription

1 For information Subjects of Broader Importance to Wales Disclosable Meeting 9/12/11 Agenda Item 23 Reference No HEFCW/11/137 1 Issue The purpose of this paper is to update Council members on the current HEFCW funded activity with regard to Subjects of Broader Importance to Wales. Subjects considered to be of strategic importance to Wales are Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM), Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) and Islamic Studies. 2 Corporate Planning Implications / Rationale for paper 2.1 The Welsh Government s higher education strategy For our Future highlights the importance to the Welsh economy of developing stronger high-level skills and leading edge research in STEM. HEFCW s remit letter for 2010/11 clearly states that the Council should match learning delivery to meet national strategic priorities such as STEM and MFL. 2.2 Funding provided for Subjects of Broader Importance to Wales focuses on both widening access to subjects which often fail to attract students from backgrounds with little traditional participation in higher education, alongside stimulating employer engagement which aims to address Wales higher levels skills needs. Funding is also used to support subjects which are viewed as strategically important to Wales. 3 Recommendation(s) The Council is invited to note the contents of the paper. 4 Timing for decisions There are no decisions arising from this council paper. 5 Council members interests No conflicts of interests have been declared in advance of the meeting. 6 Further information Contact Emma Morris (Tel ; emma.morris@hefcw.ac.uk)

2 7 Background 7.1 Since HEFCW has kept abreast of the work in England to identify and protect strategically important and vulnerable subjects. In 2007 the decision was made that whilst we would continue to monitor the situation for some subject areas we would seek, where appropriate, to join in measures currently in place, or planned, in England which sought to stimulate increased demand for those subjects where demand is currently low. 7.2 In 2007 HEFCW gained representation on the STEM steering group convened by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). From this grouping we were able to establish contact with four professional bodies the Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society of Chemistry, Institute of Physics, and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. In June 2007 Council confirmed a budget for STEM support of 375K per annum for 2007/08 and 2008/09. The funding was used to roll out the HEFCE funded STEM pilot projects for the four subject areas into Wales. 7.3 In October 2008 Council agreed to make additional funding available to enable the Welsh sector to link into England s National Programme for STEM (Council paper HEFCW/08/73 refers). It also approved funding to enable the creation of a Routes into Languages consortium for Wales in support of MFL provision. In addition, HEFCW agreed to provide a small level of funding in support of a national programme to establish a UK Islamic Studies Network. 8 STEM Developments 8.1 In March 2009 the University of Birmingham was awarded the contract to host England s National STEM Programme under the leadership of Professor Nigel Weatherill. Professor Weatherill has since left Birmingham to become Vice- Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. Professor Karen O Brien is now Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Birmingham with responsibility for the Programme. 8.2 HEFCW agreed to provide 1M over the three year funding period, 2009/ /12, towards the costs of the programme, enabling Welsh institutions to participate. HEFCW officers sit on both the Executive Committee and Programme Board which oversee the Programme. 8.3 In line with the development of the scheme in England, Wales has formed its own region or spoke (to Birmingham s hub ) alongside another five in England. Each region is led by one Higher Education Institution, in Wales case this is Swansea University, specifically the collaborative Wales Institute of Mathematical and Computational Sciences (WIMCS) based there. Helpfully, WIMCS is also the lead hub for the Welsh Government s National Science Academy under the direction of the Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor John Harries. 8.4 Ten institutions 1 across Wales agreed to support the project. Having spent much of year one appointing staff and agreeing the general governance of the Programme, year two (2010/11) has focussed on delivering activities. The central hub at Birmingham has a rolling programme of calls for project bids focussed on the two main aims of the Programme - widening access and workforce development. There are several streams of work involved including: 1 University of Glamorgan, Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, Cardiff University, Swansea University, UWIC, UW Newport, Swansea Metropolitan University, Glyndŵr University and the Open University in Wales. 2

3 Practice Transfer Adopters (PTAs), where institutions enable others to share in their proven good practice; Practice Transfer Partnerships (PTPs), which are spread across seven key areas and are targeted to bring longer term benefit to the activities of the wider HE STEM sector. The areas include diversity, retention, careers advice and guidance, strategic university engagement with employers and regional working with schools and colleges; Development and delivery of Graduate Skills; Workforce development more generally, including employer engagement. Further information on the activities within these strands, on a national level, can be accessed at With the bidding process for these and other activities an ongoing feature of the Programme, and with some late staff appointments at spoke HEIs for a variety of reasons, the STEM Programme had accrued an underspend earlier this year in the region of 800k. There were also difficulties with the end of year sustainability arrangements for the Programme s third and final year (see HEFCW/11/CE6 of 21 October). As a consequence HEFCE s SDF panel, which endorsed the original, substantial English investment in this Programme, has reviewed and recently agreed to support its third and final year (2011/12). Discussions have also taken place between funding councils officers and the Programme Director, Michael Grove, which have resulted in agreement for revised plans which account for much of the carry forward to now be implemented. Further discussion is, however, ongoing between HEFCE and the Programme Director over the future of a portion of the funding earmarked for workforce development, which is no longer a HEFCE priority area. This will not impact upon Welsh spoke activities where some ongoing work related to workforce development has been agreed as it remains a priority for HEFCW and the Welsh Government. 8.6 The Welsh Spoke aims, through the Programme, to make the transition from school to university more effective, to enhance the skills graduates can bring to employers, to improve employers understanding of the value of graduates, and to use HEI expertise to up-skill better the existing workforce. 8.7 Activities in the second year of the Programme within Wales included the successful piloting of a Maths Support Centre, the development of a pre-university online maths course and the provision of work based learning at Level 4 and above aimed at SMEs and micro-enterprises. Further information and examples of activities currently underway, funded by the Welsh Spoke, are at Annex A. 9 Modern Foreign Languages Developments 9.1 In October 2008 HEFCW agreed to make MFL part of the Subjects of Broader Importance to Wales initiative, and committed funding of 250K per annum to allow Wales to participate in the Routes into Languages scheme. 9.2 The original Route into Languages Scheme in England was jointly funded by HEFCE ( 4.5M) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education) ( 3.5M). Under the programme, nine regional consortia were established in England where groups of universities worked together with schools and colleges to enthuse and encourage people to study 3

4 languages. In addition, national networks were set up to promote translation and interpreting as careers and three research projects were commissioned. 9.3 The English programme was set up to run initially for four years from 2006/07 to 2009/10 and was led by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) s Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies (LLAS), in a partnership with the University Council of Modern Languages (UCML) and CILT, the National Centre for Languages. HEFCE made the decision in 2010/11 to continue to provide funding in support of the programme up until July The refresh of the Assembly s Languages Count strategy published in July 2010 requested that Welsh Government and CILT Cymru should provide support to HEFCW to implement the Routes into Languages Cymru programme, and this has been accomplished by funding LLAS to, in effect, run Wales as a further region, with its management and delivery carried out by CILT Cymru. CILT Cymru, with its regional and language based expertise, hosts a full-time dedicated Project Manager (and administrator) to run the Consortium, with the Director of CILT Cymru as the part-time Programme Director. Some other areas highlighted within the new strategy have also been touched upon by the ongoing activities of the programme such as consideration to developing foreign language units that can be delivered through the Welsh Baccalaureate, and the promotion of Mandarin to secondary school pupils. 9.5 Nine institutions 2 currently make up the Routes Cymru Consortium. During year 2 of the programme the project team have undertaken a series of language based activities throughout Wales. They have continued to develop new resources, including the Student Mobility DVD and have made contact through these means with thousands of school children. Preliminary findings indicate that this contact has had a positive impact on future decisions about studying languages at higher education (although the true impact, in terms of applications, will not be seen for several years). Routes Cymru continues to support the successful Student Language Ambassador scheme in Wales with over 100 students now trained and providing information about language study through talks to schools and at careers fairs. Further information on some recent activities undertaken by Routes Cymru can be found at Annex B. 9.6 In 2010/11 HEFCW was informed that CILT, the National Centre for Languages, having run into serious financial difficulties, had subsequently become insolvent. In February 2011 CILT Cymru confirmed that following negotiations to ensure their continuing viability they would be merging with the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) and would be based at their Cardiff offices. This move has ensured the future of CILT Cymru and their continued delivery of the programme. When considering this upheaval it should be noted that CILT Cymru has continued to deliver numerous successful activities and has kept the Steering Group (including HEFCW) informed and updated throughout. 10 Islamic Studies 10.1 In June 2009 the English, Scottish and Welsh funding councils agreed to jointly provide 850K to fund a national network to bring the UK community of Islamic Studies scholars closer together. The network aims to provide information on 2 Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, Cardiff University, Swansea University, SMU, UWIC, UW Newport, UW Trinity St David and the Open University in Wales. 4

5 courses and staff, facilitate events, seminars and exchanges of ideas to enable academics to connect. The Higher Education Academy (HEA) is working with the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) to develop the network. HEFCW s contribution is 42k in total Phase one saw the HEA reporting to HEFCE on the provision of Islamic Studies at modular level and a consultation on the Islamic Studies academic community highlighting their priorities and needs from the network. Phase two is now complete and the Islamic Network is up and running bringing together a network of academics from a range of disciplines to enhance teaching and learning in UK education. HEFCW will make one final payment in 2011/12 to finalise its contribution to the programme. 11 Financial implications 11.1 There are no financial implications arising from this paper beyond existing commitments. Officers are, however, continuing to participate in HEFCE s discussions with the University of Birmingham which could lead to the recovery of unspent funds, including our contribution, should the discussions fail to conclude satisfactorily. Funding is available for all activities from the Subjects of Broader Importance budget line. 12 Communications implications 12.1 There are no communication implications arising from this paper. 13 Diversity and Equal Opportunities implications 13.1 Elements of the Route into Languages Scheme and the STEM National Programme are aimed at increasing participation into subjects which often fail to attract students from backgrounds with little traditional participation in higher education. As such both programmes will contribute to the aims of widening access to higher education in Wales. 14 Risk Assessment RISK The proposed interventions are insufficient to prevent loss of provision which is of a broader importance to Wales. Without additional funding students will not be encouraged to undertake studies in STEM, MFL and Islamic Studies. ACTION TO ADDRESS RISK Close monitoring of the situation, including annual statistics, on-going dialogue with the sector and active participation with colleagues in England. The proposals outlined in this paper are intended to address this risk. 5

6 Committed HEFCW funds are not properly deployed Continued participation with HEFCE in negotiations with the University of Birmingham to either reclaim unspent funds or agree their appropriate reprofiling 6