The expansion of higher education (HE) in England has been predicated on the desire to open up access to degree level education for individuals from a much wider range of social backgrounds. At the same time, there has been some debate about the extent to which apprenticeships and vocational courses leading to Level 3 (intermediate) qualifications should also be seen as routes to higher level study (see, inter alia, Nuffield, 2008; Bowers-Brown and Berry, 2005). Very few Level 3 vocational qualifications are currently recognised for direct entry to HE (Connor and Little, 2005). Some are only accepted in combination with academic qualifications, and many are not recognised at all. This is despite the paradoxical fact that the expansion of student numbers in HE has been accompanied by an expansion in the number of vocational degree courses, including the Foundation Degree. The complexities of admissions’ procedures are at their most opaque when it comes to HE’s relationship with the vocational. In the case of apprenticeship, the case for advocating that it too should provide progression to HE raises additional issues. Whilst the attainment of qualifications forms part of apprenticeship, it is the completion of the whole programme that signals the individual has developed a much broader capability by combining participation in vocational practice in the workplace with the development of associated vocational knowledge (Fuller and Unwin, 2008). This paper explores the evolving, yet paradoxical relationship between apprenticeship, vocational qualifications and higher education and will place the developments in England in the wider context of the country’s relationship to the Bologna Process (see Scott, 2008). To date, there has been very little research on this relationship apart from an attempt to quantify the numbers of young people entering HE with vocational qualifications (see Hoelscher et al, 2008) and examination of the further and higher education interface (see, inter alia, Bathmaker et al, 2008). There is an emerging literature on Foundation Degrees, but so far this has tended to concentrate on the way these qualifications have been developed and the experiences of students (see Reeve et al, 2007; Smith and Betts, 2003). To that extent, the study of apprenticeships and vocational qualifications continues to be carried out in a separate space to the study of HE. The paper will argue that this separation has neglected both the vocational curricula vocational qualifications at Level 3 are treated in contrast to academic qualifications.

The paper will present four case studies, each representing a different occupational sector, to show how possible it is for apprentices and vocational learners to enter HE in England. The case studies will be formed from data gathered through a mixed-method approach, including analysis of statistical information, semi-structured interviews with key informants, and documentary and website evidence related to the admissions’ procedures of universities. Comparative descriptive evidence from a range of universities in European countries has also been gathered as well as from national government webites.

The paper will argue that a sectoral dimension has emerged as being crucial to our understanding of the evolving landscape of practice with regard to HE admission in England. This is because each occupational sector has its own history of and approach to the concept of progression, and, importantly, because some sectors are protected by powerful professional bodies whose own relationship with HE ensures that progression is built into all aspects of the vocational routes (including apprenticeship) that they endorse. The introduction of new post-intermediate vocational qualifications such as the Foundation Degree is strengthening the power of sectors to intervene in the design of HE programmes (both in terms of curricula and pedagogy) and pose a challenge to apprenticeship in that they provide direct entry to university from a vocational pathway.