The paper introduces the move from an elite to a mass higher education and the implications for colleges of further education.  The introduction draws on Trow’s perspective of the English post-compulsory sector.

The paper examines the development of non-university higher education providers from the early 1980s and the impact of changes from local authority control to a central Government planning and regulation body (which gave little priority to colleges of further education) and finally to independent corporations and the establishment of separate funding bodies for FE and HE. Key White Papers and legislation is discussed.

The mass expansion of higher education in the late 1980s and early 1990s is discussed, and the fact that much of this was in universities and the former polytechnics at first degree and post-graduate level - although there was some growth in franchise arrangements between HEIs and colleges to meet the demand for expansion.

The Dearing Inquiry (1997) addressed the issue of higher education in further education colleges and there was an expectation that further expansion would be at sub-degree level in FECs.  The more recent introduction of Foundation degrees, Lifelong Learning Networks and development of a ladder for vocational progression all increased the policy focus on colleges and in turn increased prescription for FECs which remained in a dual system of regulation in post-secondary education.

This paper is published in Higher Education Quarterly, Volume 57 (4) 2003 pp308-337.  The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com.

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