The Westminster government’s trial of short courses ahead of the launch of England’s lifelong loan entitlement (LLE) was a “fiasco” because it took a “tremendously utilitarian approach” to the courses it would fund, while the attachment of “top universities” to prestige is a block on credit transfer, according to a university leader.
David Latchman, vice-chancellor of Birkbeck, University of London, made the comments during a Westminster Higher Education Forum event on the LLE, which will give people access to loans worth the equivalent of four years of post-18 education to use over the course of their working lives.
Under the trial, run by the Office for Students for the government, institutions were able to advertise short courses eligible for loan funding from June 2022, with 102 courses on offer across 22 institutions.
But in September 2022, the government confirmed that just 12 applications for loans had been received from prospective students.
