Editing Foundation degree (section)

==History==
The need for intermediate higher education qualifications that combined vocational and academic elements was recognised in the ''Choosing to Change'' report in 1994 and by the [[Dearing Report]] in 1997, while the 1999 ''Delivering Skills for All'' report recommended the establishment of two-year vocational [[associate degree]]s. They were trialled in 2000, at which point the government expected 80% of the future expansion in higher education to come from foundation degrees.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/foundation-degrees-start-small/152506.article |title=Foundation degrees start small|date=14 July 2000|work=[[Times Higher Education]]}}</ref> Foundation degrees were formally launched in 2001 and the first students enrolled at the start of the 2001/2 academic year.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 2004 |title=Foundation Degree Task Force Report to Ministers |url=https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/FDTF%201.pdf.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120821191556/https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/FDTF%201.pdf.pdf |archive-date=21 August 2012 |website=Department for Education |pages=6–7, 10 |access-date=2 July 2012 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>

Foundation degrees expanded initially, particularly taking market share from other sub-degree qualifications such as [[Higher National Diploma]]s, but overall enrollments have declined since 2009. Although the number of students studying foundation degrees at colleges has continued to increase, this has not been sufficient to offset the fall in university courses. This has been blamed on a number of factors such as the introduction, in 2009, of student number controls. This limited the number of students that universities could recruit in a year, rather than the total number on courses. The Foundation Degree Forward [[quango]], which had been set up to promote foundation degrees, closed in 2011.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://wonkhe.com/blogs/the-downfall-of-foundation-degrees/|title=The downfall of foundation degrees?|publisher=Wonkhe|author=Ben Verinder| date=24 March 2015}}</ref>