14-19 institutional arrangements in England: A research perspective on collaboration, competition and patterns of post-16 provision

Geoff Stanton and Mick Fletcher
This paper seeks to assess how institutional factors affect the educational experiences of young people. It considers the impact of: the type of institution attended; the relationships between institutions; and the mix of institutions in an area. It draws primarily on evidence relating to 16-19 year-olds but has messages for the whole 14-19 phase.

The intake to different types of institution – further education (FE) colleges, tertiary colleges, schools and sixth form colleges – differs significantly in terms of prior attainment, social class and ethnicity. There are also systematic differences in funding which, in general, result in the more disadvantaged learners receiving fewer resources. Although there are apparent differences in the outcomes recorded by different institutional types, these all but disappear after controlling for intake. It is difficult to find evidence that specialisation on its own improves performance but there is growing evidence that increased scale improves efficiency and effectiveness.

Institutions in an area can compete or collaborate. Evidence on the effects of both competition and collaboration is difficult to obtain, not least because the terms are not used in clear and consistent ways. There is, however, some evidence that increasing the choice of institutions tends to decrease choice of subjects; and it seems probable that it will not be possible to guarantee access to the full range of 14-19 diplomas in a locality either by competitive or weakly collaborative arrangements.

New research from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) focuses not just on individual institutions, but on the impact of different mixes of institutional types in an area (the 'provider ecology'). Although the data do not yet allow robust conclusions to be drawn about retention and achievement, there is reliable evidence that different provider ecologies do not impact on participation rates.

The authors conclude that there is no evidence that having a differentiated set of post-16 institutions improves performance, even though this offers some learners a choice of learning environment. On the other hand, there is worrying evidence that differentiation produces social segregation and inequity. Taken together with the emerging evidence on the benefits of scale it suggests that a managed tertiary system offers the best prospect of both quality and equity in 14-19 provision.

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