The EPC responds to a variety of consultations from Government, the funding councils and other stakeholders, representing the views and interests of all the membership.

The EPC will follow one of four pathways to prepare its consultation response:

• Full consultation
• Representative consultation
• Executive consultation
• No collective response

The EPC Executive will decide which pathway to use depending on the timing and scope of the consultation. You can read EPC Protocol for Consultations here.

Where possible, the EPC seeks to offer a single, authoritative, HE engineering voice in our responses to consultations. Sometimes, it is even more effective to collaborate with other education sectors in the engineering space. To this end, we sometimes work with Engineering for Education, an engineering education and skills policy body, to produce  collaborative responses.

Open consultations

OfS consultation on quality and standards conditions

The Office for Students undertook a preliminary consultation on a range of quality and standards issues during the winter of 2020-21 (the EPC response is below). The current consultation takes forward some aspects of that consultation and makes more detailed proposals about new regulatory requirements.

Deadline for responding: 27 September 2021. The EPC proposes a representative response by the Engineering Education, Employability and Skills Committee highlighting that, on its own, the level of detail on this consultation is too narrow and insular to provide useful grounds for constructive comment.

Pending consultations

Following a busy policy season last academic year, we are aware of several promised consultations in the coming months (below and in this useful infographic from HEPI) We’re looking forward to a busy time digesting it all, gathering your thoughts and representing them. Watch this space.

• Lifelong loan entitlement
• Further reforms to the higher education system
• Future iterations of TEF
• UCAS personal statement

Submitted consultations

IfATE consultation on degree apprenticeships

In September 2021, the EPC submitted a response to the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education’s proposals for changes to existing policies based on their four years’ experience of approving degree apprenticeships and a need for more collaborative working. The proposals effect the development, approval and operation of degree apprenticeships. Five specific changes were being proposed to their requirements of degree apprenticeships:

• better supporting graduate-entry occupations
• integration of on-the-job and off-the-job training
• alignment between apprenticeship knowledge, skills and behaviours and degree learning outcomes
• integration of assessment
• participation of an independent assessor with occupational expertise

We  welcome the Institute’s consultation which extends to four of the five key areas addressed EPC’s 2018 paper, Experience enhanced: Improving engineering degree apprenticeships which was intended as a significant policy contribution, addressing the issues that concern the academic community about degree apprenticeships. The report built on the Engineering Professors’ Council’s extensive work to establishing a toolkit for academics to develop successful degree apprenticeships and on our discussion paper, Designing apprenticeships for success. 

The full response is available below, together with a copy of the Institute’s PowerPoint summary of the consultation (as they have now removed the consultation web page).

Date	Consultation	Response	Outcomes
September 2021	Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education Degree Apprenticeships Consultation
June 2021	Compensation and Condonement: Feedback to proposed accreditation regulations
May 2021	DfE proposed changes: Post-qualifications admissions in Higher Education
May 2021	OfS Consultation on Recurrent Funding for 2021-22
January 2021	OfS Consultation on Regulating Quality and Standards in HE		EPC feedback published in OfS Digital Teaching and Learning Review
October 2020	OfS Consultation on Digital teaching and learning in English higher education during the coronavirus pandemic: Call for evidence
May 2020	OfS Consultation on the integrity and stability of the English higher education sector
May 2020	REF 2021 timetable
November 2019	Migration Advisory Committee’s call for evidence on a salary threshold and points-based system
October 2019	Compensation and Condonement: Response to proposed accreditation regulations		Engineering Council response
September 2019	Improving Higher Technical Education: Department for Education
August 2019	Engineering Council Standards Review
May 2019	Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Future frameworks for international collaboration on research and innovation: call for evidence
April 2019	OFSTED consultation on the education inspection framework 2019
March 2019	UKRI consultation on the Knowledge Exchange Framework
March 2019	Independent review of TEF: call for views
February 2019	UKSCQA degree classification consultation
January 2019	APPG on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM		Successful influence on APPG lines of inquiry for 2019.
October 2018	REF 2021
July 2018	Home Affairs Committee Post-Brexit migration policy inquiry		Ordered to be published on 10 July 2018. Available here.
June 2018	Engineering Council Review of UKSPEC
May 2018	Women into Engineering
May 2018	The Department for Education consultation on the subject-level Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF)
May 2018	The Department of Education call for evidence to support a Review of Post-18 Education and Funding
Feb 2018	Department for Education consultation on Accelerated degrees: widening student choice in higher education
Jan 2018	HEFCE Knowledge Exchange Framework Metrics Technical Advisory Group – initial call for evidence on KEF metrics
Jan 2018	Migration Advisory Committee Science budget and Industrial Strategy inquiry call for evidence on International students: economic and social impacts
Dec 2017	Securing student success: risk-based regulation for teaching excellence, social mobility and informed choice in higher education
Oct 2017	Education Select Committee, Value for Money in HE		The House of Commons Education Committee released the written evidence it has received for its inquiry into the value for money of universities, including the EPC’s submission.
Apr 2017	BEIS, Building our Industrial Strategy Green Paper
Apr 2017	HESA, NewDLHE: The future of graduate outcomes data
Mar 2017	HEFCE – Consultation on the second Research Excellence Framework
Nov 2016	Education Committee – The impact of exiting the European Union on higher education inquiry		EPC President, Professor Stephanie Haywood, gave evidence to the House of Commons Education Committee on the 11th of January 2017   The EPC received a number of mentions in the final report of the Committee.
Sep 2016	Business, Innovation and Skills Committee (BIS) – Inquiry on industrial strategy
Aug 2016	House of Commons Science and Technology Committee – Leaving the EU: Further call for evidence
Jul 2016	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Accelerated courses and switching university or degree
Jul 2016	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Teaching Excellence Framework. Technical consultation for year 2
Mar 2016	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Review of the Research Excellence Framework
Mar 2016	OfQual AS and A Level Electronics consultation on Conditions and Guidance
Jan 2016	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Higher education: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice
Jan 2016	OfQual AS and A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics consultation on Conditions and Guidance

Archived

Read the EPC’s submissions to other recent consultations.