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The FACULTY BOARD OF EDUCATION beg leave to report to the University as follows:
1. The Faculty Board propose changes to the regulations for the Education Studies Tripos in order to provide a new pathway which would enable candidates wishing to train as primary or middle-school teachers to pursue a professionally orientated programme comprising a three-year degree followed by a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (P.G.C.E.).
2. The Faculty Board believe that their proposals have significant educational advantages and that these could be achieved by amending the existing regu-lations for the Education Studies Tripos to include an alternative, more explicitly professionally orientated course of study. This would provide candidates who wish to become primary or middle-school teachers with the necessary educational background for proceeding to a P.G.C.E. course, in Cambridge or elsewhere, and thereby to obtain Qualified Teacher Status. The Faculty Board believe that the Cambridge Education Studies Tripos will continue to attract excellent candidates to Cambridge and to teaching if the proposals are approved.
3. Traditionally students with such aspirations have taken the four-year course leading to the B.Ed. Degree (Education Tripos) which incorporates the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). The Cambridge B.Ed. is widely acknowledged to be the leading primary teacher-training course in the country, in 1999 topping the national league tables both in terms of the quality of the students it attracts and in the grades awarded to it by Ofsted. However, the viability of the B.Ed. route and the capacity to recruit students to it is threatened by the introduction of salaries of £6,000 for trainees on P.G.C.E. courses whilst denying them to final-year B.Ed students. It is difficult to anticipate the Government's longer term strategy but the prospect of four years' tuition fees and no training salary is bound to deter students. In these circumstances the Faculty Board believe that applications for the B.Ed. Degree will decline sharply next year. It is therefore a matter of some urgency for Cambridge to develop an alternative route to Qualified Teacher Status which preserves high academic standards and the best traditions of current provision without financial penalty to its education students.
4. The essence of the Faculty Board's proposal therefore is that the regulations for the Education Studies Tripos should be amended to introduce two schemes of examination. Students following Scheme A would take the Tripos under the existing regulations. Students taking Scheme B would follow a programme incorporating elements with a clear professional emphasis, including experience in schools. This initiative is consistent with the Government's view in its Green Paper 'Teachers: Meeting the Challenge of Change' (December 1998) that incorporating some professionally orientated elements, including work with children, into first-degree courses is a highly desirable development nationally. These elements will be designed so as to provide continuity and progression, both academically and professionally, for those wishing to continue to a P.G.C.E. The Faculty Board are confident that a course of this nature will be no less academically demanding than the current Tripos and that such a programme can be introduced without additional cost to the University or to Homerton College, where much of the current teaching takes place. Graduates from other Triposes or from outside Cambridge would continue to be admitted to the P.G.C.E.
5. At present Homerton admits all candidates for the B.Ed. Degree and the majority of candidates to the Education Studies Tripos, although the number of matriculated students at Homerton and the numbers for the Education Studies Tripos are restricted. If the new regulations for the Education Studies Tripos are approved, all Colleges could admit candidates for both schemes. The Faculty of Education would provide the additional support needed for candidates taking the school-based professional studies elements which form part of Scheme B. To enable Homerton College to maintain its undergraduate numbers, restrictions on the Education Studies Tripos would need to be lifted as the Faculty Board expect that no new candidates would be admitted to the B.Ed. Degree course in 2001 or until such time thereafter that seemed appropriate. They would however ensure that students continuing their studies for the B.Ed. Degree would not be disadvantaged.
6. Discussions are taking place between the University, the School of Education, and the Trustees of Homerton College about the possible merging of the academic work of the College and the School of Education to form an integrated Faculty. The changes to the Education Studies Tripos proposed in this Report are distinct from those discussions but are not disconsonant with the Faculty's Strategic Academic Plan for 2000-10.
7. The Education Studies Tripos is at present a three-year course comprising two Parts: Part I is taken at the end of the second year and Part II at the end of the third year. An unclassified Preliminary Examination is held at the end of the first year. Under the amended regulations candidates following Scheme B would offer, in Part I, course-work related to the foundation disciplines of education studies, and the written papers or other exercises specified for the selected main subject studies, as defined under existing regulations. For Part II, Scheme B candidates would offer course-work related to research methods in education, combined with a period of four weeks in school in the Michaelmas Term, and would study more advanced topics in the field of education, including one compulsory paper on teaching and learning issues for the primary and middle years, in addition to curriculum studies; further work in main subject studies would not be undertaken. As the course-work for Scheme B starts in Part I, this scheme will not be open to candidates admitted under Regulation 3(b) of the Education Studies Tripos, that is candidates transferring to Education Studies from another Tripos.
8. The Faculty Board recommend:
That the regulations for the Education Studies Tripos be amended as set out in the Annex to this Report.
26 June 2000
| GORDON JOHNSON (Chairman) JOHN BECK COLIN CONNER LESLEY DEE MARY JANE DRUMMOND TIM EVERTON WILLIAM FOSTER |
DAVID FROST PHILIP GARDNER DAVID HARGREAVES DONALD MCINTYRE COLLEEN MCLAUGHLIN IAN MORRISON KATE PRETTY |
JOHN RAFFAN PETER RICHARDS MICHAEL RICHARDSON JACQUELINE STANFORD BRIAN TURNER PETER WOTHERS MICHAEL YOUNGER |
Education Studies Tripos (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 272)
With effect from 1 October 2001
Regulation 13.
By amending Section I so as to read:
Section I. Research and investigation in education.
Course-work related to educational research methods and analysis.
With effect from 1 October 2003
Regulation 11.
By inserting the following final sentence:
In Part II of the Tripos, the class-list may show, by some convenient mark, candidates who have undertaken professional placements.
Regulation 14.
By amending the regulation so as to read:
14. There shall be two alternative schemes of examination for Part II, (A) and (B).
| (a) | a candidate who takes the examination under Regulation 3(a)1 and who does not undertake a professional placement shall offer scheme (A) as follows: | |
| (i) | course-work as prescribed for Section I | |
| (ii) | three papers or other exercises chosen from Sections II-IV, at least one of which shall be from Section II. | |
| (b) | a candidate who takes the examination under Regulation 3(a)1 and who undertakes a period of professional placement shall offer scheme (B) as follows: | |
| (i) | course-work as prescribed for Section I | |
| (ii) | Paper 5 from Section II | |
| (iii) | two other papers or other exercises chosen from Sections II-III; | |
| (c) | a candidate who takes the examination under Regulation 3(b),2 or a candidate who is an Affiliated Student and has been given leave by the Faculty Board to take Part II without having previously obtained honours in an Honours Examination, shall offer Section I and three written papers or other exercises chosen from Sections II-IV, at least two of which shall be chosen from Section II; | |
| provided that | ||
| (1) | with the permission of the Faculty Board, a candidate following scheme (A) may offer in place of one paper from Section II or Section III, a dissertation of not less than 8,000 words and not more than 10,000 words, inclusive of notes and appendices; a candidate may not offer a dissertation in place of any of the Papers in Sections II-III. | |
| (2) | a candidate following scheme (A) may not offer more than one dissertation under Sections II-IV; | |
| (3) | a candidate shall not offer any paper or other exercise which he or she has previously offered in another University examination. | |
1 I.e. a candidate who takes the examination in the year next after last obtaining honours.
2 I.e. a candidate who takes the examination in the year next but one after last obtaining honours.
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Cambridge University Reporter, 26 July 2000
Copyright © 2000 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.