§ Mr. GardinerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if his Department will encourage universities to offer credits for work experience on university courses. [163417]
§ Alan JohnsonThe use of credit systems is a matter for higher education institutions. However, in the White Paper, "The future of higher education", we asked the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to work with partners in the sector to build upon the best current practice, and to scale this up so that there is widespread and consistent use of credit across higher education. The work is being taken forward as part of a wider exercise to review systems for measuring and recording student achievement, initially through a scoping group chaired by Professor Bob Burgess, VC at the University of Leicester. Professor Burgess is expected to report with recommendations for future action during the summer. More specifically on work experience, the newly introduced two-year foundation degrees combine academic study with work based learning, with the work based element forming part of the overall assessment toward the final award. Employers are actively involved in the design and review of courses to ensure that students are gaining a HE qualification that is relevant to employment in their chosen area.