Perspectives Issue 2 / December 2016

Consumer rights in higher education – CMA in action Choosing to study for a degree requires significant investment both financially and in life changes, but up until March last year, higher education was not subject to consumer protection law in the same way as the purchase of other goods and services are.

Apprenticeships – a win, win for Cranfield As part of the Government’s plans to train three million new apprentices by 2020, it will be introducing the Apprenticeship Levy in April 2017 on all organisations with a UK pay bill over £3m. This will result in a large ‘pot’ of funding for development that is paid into a digital account which an organisation will then be able to access for the purposes of training its apprentices through registered training providers. Cranfield as an apprenticeship employer At Cranfield, apprenticeships are already a route through which staff can join the University and we currently have 12 apprentices working across three of our Schools and Professional Service Units. We provide the framework for the apprentices to learn in a real-life setting and many stay on as permanent staff members once they qualify. In this way Cranfield also gains some of the specialist staff required to run a University with such complex and varied requirements. With the impending introduction of the Levy, we are looking at how we can maximise the use of the funding to support new apprentices to fill vacant posts as well as using apprenticeships to develop our existing staff.

Recognising this, the Competition and Markets Authority published guidance in 2015 setting out how the Consumer Rights Act applies to the higher education sector, including measures that should be put in place to ensure terms and conditions are transparent.

The guidance covers three key areas: • information provision – universities need to provide upfront, clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information • terms and conditions – universities’ terms and conditions that apply to students need to be fair and balanced • complaint handling processes and practices – universities need to ensure their complaint handling processes and practices are accessible, clear and fair to students. What this means The Act is designed to ensure all information given to a prospective student, both undergraduate and postgraduate, is a true, honest, accurate and transparent representation of what they will actually receive once studying here, whether verbally or written. While the CMA legislation does not specifically relate to executive education, the principles of clear communication and fairness still apply. Key points to be aware of • Dating – all student-related publications, particularly those that contain fee or module information, need to clearly show the date they were published. • Promotion – we are advertising our courses often up to two years in advance of students starting them, so we need to bear in mind what we commit to offering and whether this may change. • Pricing – any literature referring to fees should be signed off for CMA compliance before it is printed and distributed. • Hidden costs – where there are costs which will be incurred by the student without which they cannot obtain their degree, such as bench fees, these need to be communicated in advance. • Verbal – the legislation also applies to what we say to prospective students, whether at open days, over the phone or on channels such as social media. • Communicating change – where change is inevitable, the onus is on the University to contact the prospective student to make them aware of what has changed, such as a module change or the people who will be teaching on the course. • Security clearance – students taking modules delivered at Shrivenham now need to get security clearance from the UK Government. Failure to meet this will mean they are not able to study with us. This needs to be made clear in all communications. You can find the security clearance disclaimer on our website and in the ‘Important notes’ section on the inside back page of our Prospectus. Changes we’ve made to ensure compliance Handling enquiries • All taught and research enquiries now go through our Enquiries Office. Offers • Our terms and conditions are sent out with each course offer letter. These have been revised to ensure that all of the terms are fair and CMA compliant. Promotional material • Prospectus • fees are now included in a separate list inserted in a pocket in the inside back page (home and overseas versions) • legal notes have been included, together with references to full information being on our website • printed documents are dated • Website • This has the most up-to-date information and links to disclaimers and notes about fees are included. • Course cluster brochures • Dates have been added to all course brochures and references made to the fee section of our website. • Events • Briefing documents have been developed for events such as Open Day to help guide those promoting Cranfield on our behalf. Postgraduate Prospectus 2017 -2018

Here three of them tell us about their life as a Cranfield apprentice and what they’ve achieved since joining.

Scott Neave has only been here since September as a trainee pensions and payroll administrator after joining straight from school. He spends Monday to Thursday learning the weekly payrolls among other duties before concentrating on his coursework on Fridays. Scott said: “I’ve gradually been settling in and given more to do; everyone is really helpful and

After completing a three-year apprenticeship while at Cranfield, Louise Lam is now a junior technician within the manufacturing and facilities group in SATM working in both the wind tunnel workshop and the dynamics, simulation and control group. She is currently working on a model which will be machined at Cranfield for testing in our wind tunnel. Louise, whose mum Susan also works at

Cranfield, first arrived from Bedford College. She said: “I knew an apprenticeship would give me the ability to learn and earn at the same time, with hands-on experience. I feel really well supported and have been exposed to so many disciplines and that’s what really appealed, as well as being able to complete a HNC and HND in Mechanical Engineering alongside the apprenticeship qualification itself.”

if I have any questions, people are more than obliging to help me. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go to university; the opportunity to have a job but still be learning and getting a qualification seemed a great idea.” It is also a family affair for Scott as mum Maggie is an assistant registrar working in Education Services.

Cranfield as an apprenticeship training provider As part of the Apprenticeship Levy, the Government has opened a new register of apprenticeship training providers to ensure consistent and rigorous standards, and Cranfield has already applied for a place. The concept of apprenticeships is that they can open up non-standard entry pathways to academic study alongside the standard pathway to a degree or Master’s. Apprenticeships have to be delivered to an industry-led standard (a competency framework) that looks at the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of someone in a particular kind of job. With the emphasis of apprenticeships on the practical application of knowledge, they are an excellent strategic fit for the University. Indeed, we are the first university in the UK to offer degree apprenticeships at Master’s level, the Systems Engineering Masters Apprenticeship Programme (SEMAP) linked with our MSc in Defence Systems Engineering at Cranfield Defence and Security. A task team, led by Professor Lynette Ryals, Pro-Vice-Chancellor – Education, is now exploring the opportunities to build on the success of SEMAP and to develop a portfolio of apprenticeships – ‘Cranfield Masterships’ – based on this model. Lynette said: “Postgraduate apprenticeships are a fantastic way for businesses to raise the skills of their employees and to reap the benefits that a highly skilled workforce brings. They are a terrific opportunity for us and for our clients.” He continued: “My apprenticeship has been a huge factor in my life. Not a day has gone by when I haven’t had the support of one or more of the staff; everyone is so helpful and willing to give up their time to help me. I never feel like I’m going to have a bad day at work. I’m constantly learning in a hands-on environment from the experienced members of the workshop and learning endless engineering techniques as there is always more than one way to accomplish a task.” Rob attends college once a week for his HNC in Mechanical Engineering, covering a wide range of educational subjects varying from engineering science to analytical maths to health and safety. He added: “The apprenticeship means I’m able to effectively gain qualifications in my desired field and work / earn a full-time salary which to me makes more sense than doing one or the other.” For the past two years, Rob Peare has been at the Shrivenham campus, initially as a technician in the Energetic Materials Test House and now in his second year as an advanced level apprentice in mechanical engineering working in the Technical Services team under Karl Norris. He’s currently involved in a number of different projects, including one alongside apprentice James Gale looking at designing and developing ways of using hand drill motors to give mobility to a skateboard without human input. A significant benefit for Rob is the experience he’s gained from working across the University. He said: “As part of the apprenticeship, we are seconded to other areas to gain insight and experience. So far I’ve worked with Dr Gareth Appleby- Thomas’s group and their high velocity gas guns and Professor Ian Horsfall’s group on the ballistic ranges. It’s an enriching experience to be in such a varied environment where there is so much to learn, and it’s amazing to think that something I’ve made is being used for research to help support or discover something new.”

Learning from others As this was the first year most universities launched their new prospectus with all the requirements for CMA, Universities UK, the representative body of UK universities, recently undertook a survey to help share best practice. This covers topics such as who typically takes ownership for compliance, how information is managed etc. If you are interested in reading the report, you can download it from the CMA page on the intranet – ‘Services’ tab > ‘Marketing and promotion – A-Z’ > ‘Competition and Markets Authority’.

CMA tells universities to improve treatment of students In summer 2016, three universities found their names hitting the headlines when the CMA took ‘targeted action’ and told them to improve their practices and the way they dealt with students. This included: • to stop preventing students from progressing or graduating if they owed non-academic debt (e.g. accommodation debt) • to improve the information being provided about additional course costs • to amend their terms which was allowing a wide discretion to vary tuition fees • to improve the information they were providing about fee variation • to ensure their complaints processes wasn’t deterring students from either raising or pursing a complaint. This followed a review to determine whether higher education providers are complying with consumer law in the information they give to students, the terms on which they deal with students, and the fairness of their complaints processes.

30 Perspectives Keeping staff informed December 2016