Heading for the precipice: can further and higher education funding policies be sustained?

In this paper, the author draws on diverse sets of data to highlight the complexities around the funding arrangements for further education in the UK. In particular, the author outlines the differences between this and higher education funding, and provides a granular analysis of the way in which resources for teaching in the adult skills sector have declined, whilst resources for teaching in universities have increased. This gap is widening and the paper discusses the implications of this trend. The author argues that this is an unsustainable situation and further and higher education...  [+] Show more

In this paper, the author draws on diverse sets of data to highlight the complexities around the funding arrangements for further education in the UK. In particular, the author outlines the differences between this and higher education funding, and provides a granular analysis of the way in which resources for teaching in the adult skills sector have declined, whilst resources for teaching in universities have increased. This gap is widening and the paper discusses the implications of this trend. The author argues that this is an unsustainable situation and further and higher education funding need to be rethought and reconfigured in a much more integrated way.

Edited excerpt from publication.