This webinar hosted by HEPI and Advance HE will be asking whether the future of post-18 education should be ‘tertiary’?

• Is it time to think in terms of ‘tertiary’ rather than FE / HE?
• Would a more unified system of post-18 education and training better address workforce needs and bolster levelling up?
• Is it time for England to learn more from changes underway in Wales and Scotland?

Many people have called for higher education and further education institutions to work much more closely together, perhaps on a regional basis and possibly with more clearly defined institutional roles, within a new tertiary system.

Both Wales and Scotland are already moving towards a combined tertiary education system, promoting partnerships and aiming for more seamless student movements between colleges and universities, but England has not as yet.

Indeed, it has been argued that, among all of Whitehall, the Department for Education (DfE) is ‘most resistant to decentralisation’. Would a different approach bring benefits to students, clarify the different roles of institutions and reduce regional disparities?

HEPI and Advance HE will bring together a panel of expert speakers to discuss all these issues, including:
• Professor David Phoenix, Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University (LSBU) and Chief Executive of the LSBU Group, as well as author of the recent HEPI Report Connecting the Dots: The Need for an Effective Skills System in England
• David Hughes, Chief Executive, the Association of Colleges (AoC)
• Dr Huw Morris, Director for Skills, Higher Education and Lifelong Learning in the Welsh Government (currently on secondment at the UCL Institute of Education as an Honorary Professor of Tertiary Education)
• Rachel Sandby-Thomas, Registrar at the University of Warwick (former Director General for Skills, Deregulation and Local Growth in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills).

The webinar will be chaired by James Dunphy, Collaborations Director (Quality Enhancement and Partnerships) at Advance HE.