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The lifelong loan entitlement is an opportunity. Let's grab it
Last updated on Tuesday 1 Oct 2024 at 4:01pm
The importance of lifelong learning cannot be overstated. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows there are one million more professional jobs in the UK than workers with degrees to fill them.
With increasing demand for skilled professionals, an aging population and generative AI creating a technological revolution, individuals will need access to education and training throughout their lives.
The lifelong loan entitlement (LLE) offers a promising answer to some of these challenges. With the dust now settled on the UK Government’s consultation response, we can start asking what the higher education sector can do to support its success.
What is the lifelong loan entitlement (LLE)?
The entitlement is equivalent to four years of post-18 higher education funding (£37,000 currently).
The LLE will do two things:
- Replace the current higher education student funding system. Yes, even your typical full-time, three-year undergraduates will draw their funds from the LLE.
- Expand funding to modular and flexible provision, allowing learners to study qualifications in chunks and take breaks. This is what’s novel about the LLE.
This funding will be available for Higher Technical Qualifications and some Advance Learner Loans courses from 2025. Then in 2027, we will see a wider rollout of level 4–6 modular provision. The entitlement will be available to all new and returning learners.
Positive policy signals
The higher education sector should embrace the overall ambition of the LLE. It’s a policy which is more radical than I think many people realise – but the direction it sets is the right one.
A flexible approach to tertiary education funding has the potential to benefit learners, employers, and universities alike:
- It will encourage universities to think differently about education delivery and has the potential to enhance collaboration with further education.
- Employers will have the opportunity to benefit from a stronger talent pool and bridge skills gaps through smaller chunks of learning, responsive to their needs.
- For learners, the LLE could promote personal and professional growth, allowing them to change career paths or upskill in existing ones.
There are many reasons to be optimistic about where this policy could take us. The challenge will be working out how to make it a success.
The consultation response saw welcome announcements on the removal of equivalent or lower qualifications (ELQ) requirements and the expansion of part-time maintenance support. This will help new and returning people access the courses they need to thrive.
So there are many reasons to be optimistic about where this policy could take us. The challenge will be working out how to make it a success. This will require universities to think about how they might respond, but the low take-up of recent short course pilots also points to a wider challenge in encouraging potential students to think about the opportunities – and to make sure that supply and demand are aligned.
Making the LLE a reality
The LLE will need to be a collaborative endeavor. Yes, its success hinges on getting the policy right, but it also hinges on universities using their resources to engage employers and learners.
There are five key areas we want to work with the Department for Education (DfE) and the Office for Students (OfS) on in the coming years.
1. Prioritise learner choice
Modular funding should be available to all learners doing level 4–6 qualifications from 2027. We shouldn’t make arbitrary judgements on which modules are or are not eligible. With courses coming in different shapes and sizes, the LLE must provide appropriate funding for courses which last longer than four years, study abroad years, placement years and retakes.
We have complex skills needs, and to be true to its vision, the LLE should support the diversity of higher education on offer to learners, not constrain it.
2. Expand opportunity by reaching new learners
We should use the LLE to increase the total number of learners with high level qualifications by reaching those that are in or out of work who could genuinely benefit from these reforms, rather than just those already in, or bound for, higher education.
Universities, government and employers have an opportunity to generate future demand through information, advice and guidance. But we need to be creative to reach people who are already in the workforce and are looking for additional skills, or who are out of work
3. Test what proportionate regulation could look like
The potential burden of regulation could limit engagement by universities in its early phases. It’s clear the current student outcome measures are not appropriate, so let’s work with the OfS to define what good outcomes look like under modular provision.
4. Ensure sustainable funding
Universities offering modular provision will require more resources for wrap-around support services and administrative costs. This comes at a time when university funding is declining in real terms. We want to make this work, so will work with the sector to share best practice to help universities efficiently deliver modular courses.
But the government should recognise that financial pressures could be a brake on the roll out of the LLE and flexible learning, if universities find that they make more of a loss on this learning model.
5. Engage with devolved administrations
Students in England should be able to use their LLE to study in the rest of the UK. Funding for this – portable funding – is fully in the spirit of the LLE’s ambition.
To achieve this, negotiations should begin with the rest of the UK to recognise each other’s funding and quality arrangements for modular courses.
I believe though, that if we think the vision is right, we need to work together as a sector to figure out how to address the barriers to successfully putting the LLE into practice.
With demographics shifting and technology evolving, it’s an exciting opportunity to make sure the UK has the higher education system it needs for the future.
Any change on this scale will need the collective insight, experience and knowledge of those in our universities and colleges to make it a success. Universities are already hugely experienced in training and upskilling the UK workforce, and providing types of flexible higher education.
With demographics shifting and technology evolving, it’s an exciting opportunity to make sure the UK has the higher education system it needs for the future.
We look forward to working with universities and the government to make the vision a reality.
