College group granted bachelor’s degree awarding powers

AWARDING POWERS: East Riding College’s Beverley campus

A college partnership has become the region’s first further education provider to receive bachelor’s degree awarding powers.

It means the Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ TEC Partnership, which offers higher education (HE) courses at East Riding College, University Centre Grimsby and Scarborough TEC, will be able to validate its own degrees from September 2022.

It is the first college group to receive bachelor’s degree awarding powers in the Yorkshire, Humber, Lincolnshire and East Midlands region.

The partnership offers a wide range of innovative foundation degrees and works with the University of Hull to award full bachelor’s honours, with courses ranging from digital and engineering to healthcare and sport.

The new courses will also be designed using the partnership’s Curriculum 2030 programme, futureproofing the skills learned by students to prepare them for the technological advancements anticipated in their chosen career.

Gill Alton, Chief Executive of the TEC Partnership, said: “I would like to congratulate our staff and students on this brilliant achievement. We are the first college in our region to be awarded bachelor’s degree awarding powers for three years, which illustrates how special our team is at the TEC Partnership. 

“The ability to award bachelor’s degrees will open up a range of exciting new opportunities that will allow our higher education offer to further flourish and thrive. We look forward to working with employers to ensure our courses continue to meet the needs of the local and regional community by developing the skilled workforce they need. 

‘BRILLIANT ACHIEVEMENT’: East Riding College Principal Mike Welsh with Gill Alton

“This incredible achievement has further cemented the TEC Partnership as a leading provider of further education and HE and I am immensely proud.” 

Nathan Michael, Group Academic Registrar, said: “I am immensely proud of the whole HE team, who pulled together to make the awarding of bachelor’s degrees a possibility across the TEC Partnership. 

“The ability to validate degrees ourselves enables us to work in partnership with employers to quickly respond to their needs to develop our range of degrees to benefit our communities and our local economy. “

Chair of Governors, Erika Stoddart, said the board is “absolutely delighted” that the TEC Partnership has received provisional awarding powers.

“This will enable our group of colleges to offer more tailored degrees to our students and is a great endorsement of our staff and teaching,” she said.

Professor Becky Huxley-Binns, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Hull, added: “The provisional award of bachelor’s degree awarding powers to the TEC Partnership is a symbol of the power of aspiration and ambition. It signifies excellent teamwork from across the partnership and is a tremendous achievement.”