The extent to which higher education exists in further education within the CDVEC is relatively small. The majority of further education colleges within the scheme provide courses up to level 5 on the national qualifications framework with some now developing FETAC programmes at level 6 (Advanced Certificate). However a small number of FECs provide HE courses, certified by BTEC Excel, and these are considered to be the equivalent of a foundation degree, with 120 ECTS on the Framework of Higher Education Qualifications UK (FHEQ). The QQI have aligned this award at level 6 (Higher Certificate) on the NQF.
A deputy principal in one of the colleges talked about the split at level 6 on the NQF.
DP2: We divided it. So we have a further certificate level six and higher certificate six. So they are very definite and that's why from this point on the QQI are very definite it's higher certificate level six, so that little debate that was always there, the BTEC Higher Nationals are higher education from the English point of view and now from the Irish point of view.
The map below shows the link between the central theme Extent of HE in FE and the codes as spurs.
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. Map 1: Extent of HE in FE Colleges
7.3.1
Range of Course Levels in CFEs
While most FECs deliver courses up to and including level 6 (Advanced Certificate), there are a number of colleges who provide courses in higher education. One college provides two honours degree programmes at level 8 on the NQF and a small number provide professional courses which they claim to be at level 7 and 8 on the NQF.
T2: PRII, it’s their course, it’s the Public Relations Institute of Ireland, Professional Institute. It’s postgrad. Its level 8 and we’ve had to fight repeatedly, (name) and myself had to fight as to retaining that.
P4: For the purposes of talking here we have a lot of programmes say 30
or 40 programmes. I suppose that about 20 of those would-be FETAC level 5 followed on by FETAC level 6 and I think at last count we had about 15/16 Higher National Diplomas.
P5: We would have six or seven programmes that would be higher
education. We have a number of HNDs… Then we would have a couple of things that would be higher education in dance. The Royal Academy of Dance was called the ISTD the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance. It equates to higher education, and there is a drama qualification called Trinity Guildhall, but Trinity College in London now certifies it at level 8.
7.3.2
BTEC Courses in FECs
The Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) began certifying courses in Ireland in the late 80s and the principal of a leading provider of HE in FE had the following to say with regard to the introduction of BTEC.
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P8: We were the leading college in developing Post Leaving Certificate
courses but I think the next strategically important thing that I did for sure was to bring in BTEC and that did so much.
Is also interesting that some of the respondents believed that BTEC HNDs are somewhere between level six and seven and in some cases this had to do with the duration of the programme rather than the number of credits accrued by students.
T2: We see it between a six and a seven. I don’t think it’s a seven because
for a seven you need to do 3 years. We are doing two years.
Another DP explains this quite well in terms of placement of BTEC on the NQF.
DP2: We can argue whether they are six and a half or seven, it doesn't really matter anymore. And remember why they are on level six in the Irish framework because we have a level for a pass degree which is seven and then an honour’s degree eight. In England they don't have a level for a pass degree so they go from the HND to an honour’s degree.
One teacher thought that two years in a FEC was no equivalent to the same amount of time in a University.
T2: Well I wouldn’t consider it here in the Irish education system as being the equivalent of doing two full years in University.
From the responses it’s quite easy to see where anomalous situations have evolved in relation to the level of BTEC HND programmes. There is also some confusion with regard to a clear definition of higher education and it would appear this has developed because of the ‘in between’ nature of further education.
7.3.3
Definitions of Further Education
The principal of one college believes there was no definition of further education in Ireland and blamed a lot of the confusion on the DES. The principal further points out that the Department showed a distinct lack of interest in the sector.
P2: There is no definition of further education in Ireland. In the ‘99
Qualifications Act, it was defined in terms of what it was not, not in terms of what it is… okay what is it? But if it is not post primary yet the Department says PLCs exist in post primary. There's a contradiction straight away… an awful lot of these muddles or gaps or lack of clarity, come from a lack of interest on the Department’s part.
This Principal goes further to substantiate his point by pointing at the lack of any real data on the sector.
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P2: If you try to get any statistics on further education over the years, there is an absence of any counting even at a basic level. Is that not an expression of a lack of interest? If you're not interested in an issue you’re not going to bother counting it!
A deputy principal gave a very simple definition as follows.
DP1: I'm going to use a working definition of higher education as being the course at level six on the Irish NQAI or higher. Using that definition this college would have 20 courses out of 40, that’s 50%.
Definitions were less important for another respondent.
P5: Well we didn’t have any great consciousness of there being any
differentiation but we knew as teachers we weren’t being paid. We knew our students weren’t being recognised for grants.