The idea of a more strongly co-ordinated system of tertiary education is gaining traction across the UK in the 2020s. In England, moves to create one funding system for post-18 education and to simplify the regulatory structures for higher level study suggest the possibility of greater standardisation across diverse forms of provision. But this is against a context where universities and colleges are in financial crisis, and face demands to rethink what they do and how they do it. A co-ordinated system of tertiary education may mean rationalisation of provision, that includes consolidations, mergers and acquisitions of institutions, where the strongest and most powerful shape the nature of future developments. This paper looks back at previous attempts to create further-higher integration. Thinking with Bourdieu, the paper considers what can be learned about the potential and pitfalls of an integrated system of tertiary education, particularly from the perspective of the further education sector and the students its serves.

Ann-Marie Bathmaker is Professor Emerita of Vocational and Higher Education at the University of Birmingham. Her research is in the fields of vocational and higher education, in particular understanding and addressing in/equalities in educational provision in these contexts. Her work has focused on Higher Education and social class, the Further Education/Higher Education interface, the governance of further education, teaching and learning in vocational and higher education, and professionalism and professional identities in further education. She is Chair of the Singapore SkillsFuture Expert Review Panel for Workforce Development Applied Research; member of the Editorial Management Committee of the Journal of Vocational Education and Training (JVET) and former editor (2017-2021); a trustee of the Edge Foundation (a UK based education charity with a particular focus on technical and professional education). She was previously the specialist advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on Social Mobility School to Work (2015-2016), and Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

Register for other seminars of the SKOPE Seminar Series on England’s progress towards a tertiary education system here. Download the seminar series poster (SKOPE Seminar Series – Tertiary Education in England (HT 2026).