The Galleon - Portsmouth's Official Student Newspaper

The University has announced that its Access to Higher Education course in the School of Education will be cut in the summer of 2012.

Access to Higher Education courses offer over 19 year olds the chance to gain a nationally acknowledged qualification with which they can progress to higher education.

The loss of the Access course, which started in 2000, will cost 5 people their jobs and cut 60 Access to Higher Education places from the University. The Access to Art and Design course in the Art department will also close. The University claims that the Access courses must close due to changes in the way the Government funds further education.

The course, which is University managed, offers a Diploma from Laser Learning Awards. In previous years it was QAA (Quality Assurance Agency for HE) accredited by SAAVA, the Southern Area Access Validating Agency, which is a University of Portsmouth-based awards board, but it lost this accreditation last summer. The cutting of Access places from the University will leave Portsmouth without an Access Programme at a time when wider access to education is being called for.

The Access to HE course in the School of Education has had over 500 enquiries for spaces for each of the last 2 years and has consistently scored high levels of student satisfaction, above 4.5 out of 5.

Numbers of Access to HE students going on to university have been steadily rising, with the University’s Access course sending students on to many University of Portsmouth departments such as History, English, American Studies, Languages, Politics, Social Work, Sociology and Property Development, as well as other UK Institutions.

The closure of the Access course follows the University’s decision to cut four courses in the Art department last year, with the loss of 16 jobs.

Dr. Kevin White, course leader, said that the closure of the Access course was “a very sad day” and that it was “a great shame.”

The loss of the Access to HE course here at the University of Portsmouth could have a significant effect on local access to higher education.