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This white paper sets out the UK government's plans to reform the higher education and research system. In some cases these plans are subject to Parliament. The paper builds on the proposals consulted on in the earlier green paper, noting that the higher education landscape has changed fundamentally since the last major legislative reforms of 1992. The university system now needs important reform to fulfil its potential and to sustain its global standing.

The paper argues that higher education continues to be a sound financial and personal investment with a wide range of societal benefits. But there is more to be done for the university system to fulfil its potential as an engine of social mobility and a driver of economic growth. Access remains uneven, with young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds 2.4 times less likely to go into higher education than the most advantaged. Courses are inflexible, based on the traditional three-year undergraduate model, with insufficient innovation and provision of two-year degrees and degree apprenticeships. Many students are dissatisfied with the provision they receive, with over 60 per cent of students feeling that all or some elements of their course are worse than expected and a third of these attributing this to concerns with teaching quality. Employers are suffering skills shortages, especially in high skilled [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] STEM areas; at the same time around 20 per cent of employed graduates are in non-professional roles three and a half years after graduating. While the graduate premium has remained substantial, even as student numbers have expanded rapidly in recent decades, recent research suggests there is large variation in graduate outcomes across both providers and subjects, and even for those that studied the same subject within the same provider.

The paper suggests that at the heart of this lies insufficient competition and a lack of informed choice. The measures outlined here will help ensure that everyone with the potential to benefit from higher study can access relevant information to help them make the right choices from a wide range of high quality universities and benefit from excellent teaching that supports their future productivity. By introducing more competition and informed choice into higher education, the government aims to deliver better outcomes and value for students, employers and taxpayers.

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The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is a credit transfer system developed for qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It comprises has nine levels covering all levels of learning in secondary education, further education, vocational, and higher education. This document presents the findings from the final wave of a three-wave follow-up survey of Learning and Skills Council (LSC)-funded Level 3 learners, undertaken in November 2009. This wave looks at learners two years after enrolment (in September 2007), with a particular focus on the impacts of the course on attitudinal, learning and job related outcomes. It examines learners' satisfaction with their practical experience of learning and training, receipt of value for money, the subjective and work related impacts of training, and draws together summative conclusions about the impacts of training on attitude and work related outcomes. Show less

This document presents experimental data that gives estimates of the earnings of learners up to three years after achieving a further education qualification in England. It is based on matched administrative data from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Work and Pensions. The data covers learners achieving Full Level 2 and Full Level 3 qualifications in the academic year 2009 to 2010. It shows their average 'sustained annualised earnings' in 2010 to 2011, 2011 to 2012 and 2012 to 2013.

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This new study shows that every public pound invested in Level 3 apprenticeships provides a return of £28 to the UK economy. In 2009, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) commissioned a study to examine the impact of the further education (FE) sector as a whole in delivering its primary function: providing people with the skills they need in the labour market. The aim of the exercise was to produce a framework for estimating net present value which could be continually updated as better and more up-to-date evidence became available. BIS have used the original model framework and updated it to incorporate new evidence from two sources: new estimates of the three-five year average wage and employment returns to courses completed between 2007/08 and 2010/11; and the introduction of advanced learning loans, specifically the Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge to government (the amount which learners are expected not to repay and which is therefore a cost to government).

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In February 2009, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), in partnership with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), commissioned a study to develop a model to examine the impact of the further education (FE) sector in delivering its primary function: providing people with the skills they need in the labour market. The focus of this research paper is the learning funded by BIS for people aged 19 and over. It presents: the approach taken; the model results; and the results of additional sensitivity testing, making use of the flexibility of the model, undertaken by BIS.

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[This report analyses] the economic benefits associated with higher education qualifications. [It] establishes the impact of higher education qualifications on earnings and employment outcomes (for men and women separately). [It] considers the returns associated with undergraduate degrees by grade of degree, subject of study and single subject versus combined degrees. [It] also covers the returns associated with postgraduate degree level qualifications and other sub-degree level qualifications.

Published abstract from BIS website with additions. Show less

Report of a study commissioned by [the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] BIS analysing the economic returns associated with intermediate and low level vocational qualifications. [The study] used information from the 1970 British Cohort Study and the Labour Force Survey between 1996 and 2009 to assess the impacts of vocational qualifications on earnings, as well as the probability of being employed. [The study] covers the United Kingdom, but for apprenticeships the analysis was restricted to England only. It supports evidence showing positive employment and earnings returns for most qualifications gained in adulthood.

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This paper summarises recent quantitative evidence on the economic returns to having or improving literacy and numeracy skills. The summary includes evidence on earnings and employment, and distinguishes between returns to having basic skills whenever these are acquired, and returns to acquiring basic skills in adulthood. The review is confined to economic returns to individuals; macro effects - on productivity for example - are not considered. UK evidence is largely from four data sets: the 1958 National Child Development Survey (NCDS), the British Cohort Study 1970 (BCS70), the 2003 Skills for Life survey and the longitudinal study of a representative sample of adult literacy and numeracy learners. Section two provides an overview of the evidence. Section three summarises the evidence on earnings, section four summarises the evidence on employment and section five includes US evidence on the workplace. Show less