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
POST-QUALIFICATIONS ADMISSIONS: DfE consultation
Survey link: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/QLOQT1/.
EPC Deadline: 9th April
The Department for Education has launched a consultation on undergraduate admissions, following the commitment from the government to level up the university admissions system. It denounces the current system as complex, lacking transparency, working against the interests of some students, and encouraging undesirable admissions practices (read unconditional offers).
This follows proposals by the Office for Students, UCAS and UUK last summer. The DfE, consultation is aimed principally at when students receive and accept university offers (not the wider assessment, admission or policy agendas) while claiming to preserve university and UCAS autonomy.
The consultation presents two options, both of which are predicated on exam results, not predictions. The first, “post-qualification applications and offers” resembles Direct Clearing as we know it. It creates a longer application window by moving results dates (not exams) forward to the end of July and higher education term dates back to the first week of October (by compressing the exam timetable, the marking period and the requirement for UCAS to receive results data well in advance of results day).
The second, “Pre-qualification applications with post-qualification offers and decisions” would mean applications being made during term-time as now but offers being made after results day.
DfE’s consultation closes on 13 May 2021. The EPC is running a full member consultation from 22nd March to 9th April to seek your views on the specific impact on engineering. For example, what might be operationally unworkable or conceivably undesirable for engineering? Or how could entrance assessments and/or interviews sometimes used in engineering be accommodated?
We feel it is important to critique the two models proposed separately in an engineering context.We do not intend to introduce the long and involved wider arguments in detail in order to make our collective engineering voice more focused and more valuable.
The full list of questions we are asking to inform the EPC response are attached the EPC questions and you can complete the survey at https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/QLOQT1/.
Please respond by Friday 9th April.
WORLD FEDERATION OF ENGINEERING ORGANISATIONS (WFEO): IEA Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies Framework
UNESCO and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) recognise the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies Framework (GAPC) as a valuable international benchmark for engineering education. IEA monitor the various accords (Washington, Sydney and Dublin) and these competencies are the IEA’s version of the Engineering Council’s Learning Outcomes and UK-SPEC competences.
The current IEA Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies Framework has been reviewed to ensure that they reflect contemporary values and employer needs as well as equip engineers/technologist/technicians of the future to incorporate the practices that advance the UN Sustainable Goals.
As a result, there are a number of changes to future engineering competencies within the IEA Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies Framework being consulted on at the moment. You can see and comment on them here. It is currently expected that changes will be proposed at IEAM 2021 in June next year. Therefore, it is important to be aware of what is emerging at this stage so that you can input views if there are aspects that are particularly welcome, missing or in need of further work.
UK Parliament Science and Technology Committee inquiry into UK Science, Research and Technology Capability and Influence in Global Disease Outbreaks
Once the COVID-19 pandemic has passed its peak, the Science and Technology Committee will inquire formally into the place of UK research, science and technology in the national and global response, and what lessons should be learned for the future. Some of this touches upon the engineering departments’ EPC Covid-19 survey responses.
There is not currently a deadline to this call for evidence.
Pending Consultations
Following a busy policy season in the first couple of months of 2021, 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
Submitted Consultations
| Date | Consultation | Response | Outcomes |
| January 2021 | OfS consultation on Regulating Quality and Standards in HE |  |
EPC feedback published in OfS Digital Teaching and Learning Review |
| October 2020 | OfS Digital teaching and learning in English higher education during the coronavirus pandemic: Call for evidence | |
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| May 2020 | OfS consultation on the integrity and stability of the English higher education sector | |
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| May 2020 | REF 2021 timetable | |
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| November 2019 | Migration Advisory Committee’s call for evidence on a salary threshold and points-based system | |
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| October 2019 | Compensation and Condonement: Response to proposed accreditation regulations | |
Engineering Council response |
| September 2019 | Improving Higher Technical Education: Department for Education | |
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| August 2019 | Engineering Council Standards Review | |
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| May 2019 | Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Future frameworks for international collaboration on research and innovation: call for evidence | |
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| April 2019 | OFSTED consultation on the education inspection framework 2019 | |
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| March 2019 | UKRI consultation on the Knowledge Exchange Framework | |
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| March 2019 | Independent review of TEF: call for views | |
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| February 2019 | UKSCQA degree classification consultation | |
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| January 2019 | APPG on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM | |
Successful influence on APPG lines of inquiry for 2019. |
| October 2018 | REF 2021 | |
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| 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 | |
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| May 2018 | Women into Engineering | |
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| May 2018 | The Department for Education consultation on the subject-level Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) | |
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| May 2018 | The Department of Education call for evidence to support a Review of Post-18 Education and Funding | |
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| Feb 2018 | Department for Education consultation on Accelerated degrees: widening student choice in higher education | |
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| Jan 2018 | HEFCE Knowledge Exchange Framework Metrics Technical Advisory Group – initial call for evidence on KEF metrics | |
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| Jan 2018 | Migration Advisory Committee Science budget and Industrial Strategy inquiry call for evidence on International students: economic and social impacts | |
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| Dec 2017 | Securing student success: risk-based regulation for teaching excellence, social mobility and informed choice in higher education | |
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| 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 | |
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| Apr 2017 | HESA, NewDLHE: The future of graduate outcomes data | |
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| Mar 2017 | HEFCE – Consultation on the second Research Excellence Framework | |
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| 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 | |
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| Aug 2016 | House of Commons Science and Technology Committee – Leaving the EU: Further call for evidence | |
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| Jul 2016 | Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Accelerated courses and switching university or degree | |
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| Jul 2016 | Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Teaching Excellence Framework. Technical consultation for year 2 | |
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| Mar 2016 | Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Review of the Research Excellence Framework | |
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| Mar 2016 | OfQual AS and A Level Electronics consultation on Conditions and Guidance | |
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| Jan 2016 | Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Higher education: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice | |
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| 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.
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