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Apologies for cross posting. There is an interesting note in the HE Management Statistics 1997/98 Sector Level booklet recently published by HESA that says: "It should be noted that the Open University has introduced a system of course-based registration for 1997/98, by which all students register for modules rather than specific named awards, thus removing the distinction between students registering for an institutional credit and those registering for a degree or diploma. A result of this is a shift of approximately 95,000 OU students from the 'first degree' category to 'other undergraduate' for this academic year" (p34) I wonder if anyone knew why the OU has done this (given a large number of their students presumably graduate with a first degree)? Is anyone else doing this, or considering it, for part time students? If so, why? It has implications for the sub-degree target in the HEFCE funding agreement and also for progression performance indicators. Longer term it may also have implications on whether part time students go through UCAS. On a related issue, a colleague reported that at a CVCP conference on 2 November, Baroness Blackstone made a statement that loans would be forthcoming of up to #500 per annum for part time students taking 0.5 FTE (or greater). I've asked the DfEE whether this has been agreed but can't get anything out of them. Has anyone else heard about this? If in order to qualify for a loan, the part time student had to registered for an award that qualifies for full time loans (ie degree or DipHE/HND under the current regulations), then that would mean OU students and others registered only for institutional credit/modules would not qualify for the loan, which would appear to be problematic. Anyone got any thoughts? Mike Milne-Picken Head of Planning and Performance Review University of Central Lancashire www.uclan.ac.uk/planning [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%