Past consultations

The EPC EEES Committee has responded to the Office for Students’ (OfS) three latest consultations on  their approach to regulating quality and standards in higher education.

These include the promised consultation on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) as well as B3 baseline information in a new approach to regulating student outcomes, including its approach to constructing student outcomes and experience indicators.

The Office for Students undertook a preliminary consultation on a range of quality and standards issues during the winter of 2020-21 (the EPC response is available on the EPC website). Their latest consultation took forward some aspects of that consultation and made more detailed proposals about new regulatory requirements. The consultation did not cover student outcomes measures. The EPC has submitted a representative response by the Engineering Education, Employability and Skills Committee highlighting that, on its own, the level of detail on this consultation is too narrow and insular to provide useful grounds for constructive comment.

Find out more here.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee called for evidence on what the UK science and technology strategy should look like and how the UK’s research and innovation system can deliver it. The Committee is taking oral evidence from February 2022.

In the interests of brevity in such a wide reaching inquiry, the EPC response highlighted the role of engineering education in levelling up, sustainability, post-pandemic recovery, and the differences between science research and engineering research. We also highlighted the EPC’s work around industry/academia collaboration.

We raised specific concerns around Horizon funding, skills shortages in STEM and  funding the engineering skills pipeline. We also highlighted opportunities around innovation and entrepreneurship and making the UK attractive to international engineering talent.

The Education Committee recently held an inquiry on the effectiveness of the careers advice given to students – as part of a review of how well the current system for careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) is working. The EPC supported a joint response led by EngineeringUK to provide evidence for this inquiry, which closed on the 17th March. This response urges the government to consider recommendations including publishing a new careers strategy for England; rapidly expanding careers hubs to cover all secondary schools and ensuring there is a dedicated STEM leader at each; and embedding careers into STEM curriculum content. See more details of these recommendations and the evidence behind them in the full response here. You can also read a blog by the EPC’s CEO, Johnny Rich on what CEIAG is, and what the key points in his own submission to the Select Committee were – see this blog here.