Senate

SEN98-P58

A recent meeting of the Vice-Chancellor's Advisory Group considered the issue of awarding the title of ‘Associate College of Loughborough University’ to appropriate institutions which work primarily in the FE sector. The principle was broadly endorsed by VAG and the following proposals are now recommended to Senate by TLC.

1. Background

Many universities now have Associate Colleges with which they have a public and permanent relationship. These include a de facto FE arm (e.g. Derby/High Peak), feeder colleges/providing progression routes (Warwick/a number of colleges in Warwickshire and West Midlands), and colleges seeking university status (Leicester/Nene).

Loughborough currently has no such agreements, but the clear desire of both HEFCE and FEFC to see greater collaboration between the sectors, and the explicit political steer towards a post-16 continuum, suggests that we should at least have a framework within which we could develop agreements with individual colleges, if and when it becomes desirable to do so.

2. Principles

• the Associate College must be a high-quality provider of further and/or higher education
• there must be a sound strategic reason for the University to recognise a college as having Associate College status
• there should be clear benefits to the University, in terms of student recruitment, income generation, new programme developments, marketing and promotion, etc.
• there must be a formal agreement (approved by Council and the college Governing Body) which specifies the objectives and benefits of the association, and defines its parameters.