Foundation Degrees boosted by £2.9m Working Higher Programme
08 Mehefin 2009
Cogent and its partners have been successful in securing a £2.9m bid for the Working Higher FD programme together with at least a 50% subsidy of the cost of the provision to the sector.
This is an important collaborative project between the HEA Physical Sciences Centre, Cogent Sector Skills Council and the University of Hull. Cogent’s Director of Research Dr Brian Murphy is leading on the programme as part of the Project Team. The project is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
The project will develop a set of generic FD modules to be used across Foundation Degrees relevant to the strategic science-based industries in Chemicals, Nuclear Bioscience/Pharmaceutical, Polymers and Refining.
It then seeks, by utilising academic and industrial expertise, to deliver specialist modules which together with the generic modules will complete a suite of discrete sector FDs.
Up to five HEIs will join the ‘Working Higher’ consortium with a lead HEI developing the modules relevant to each sector (for example, one university would lead for the Cogent Nuclear Sector).
Invitiations to HEIs to bid to join the consortium are already out. Consortium members will each receive funding for two years, which will include funding for an industry champion on secondment to each sector.
An information pack can be downloaded from: