Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Accelerated degrees: widening student choice in higher education, published on 11 December 2017, what assessment she has made of the effect of her proposals for two-year university courses on the ability of students to seek part-time employment alongside studying to fund their living costs.

The impact of accelerated degree study on part-time working was evaluated by the Institute for Employment Studies as part of their literature review of current research on accelerated degrees. Although the authors noted concerns expressed by the NUS that accelerated study could prohibit students from part-time work, their assessment of current research data finds “no real difference in the level of part-time work undertaken during the summer period between those on accelerated programmes and those on traditional programmes”. The literature review is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/595637/Accelerated_Degrees_Literature_Review.pdf.