Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to increase the availability of distance learning in rural areas where transport availability is difficult.

Distance learning offers excellent possibilities to open up choice and opportunity to people from a diverse range of backgrounds, including those from rural areas, and the government believes it should be widely available at a range of educational levels. Student support for tuition at higher education (HE) level is available for students who want to study on a part-time basis or by distance learning.

The National Retraining Scheme (NRS) is an ambitious, far-reaching programme to drive adult retraining. It will help individuals to respond to the changing labour market, redirect their careers and secure better, more secure jobs of the future.

To inform the design of the scheme, the Flexible Learning Fund is supporting 31 pilot projects across England with a total value of £11.4 million. The projects are designing and testing innovative, flexible learning that is easy to access. The pilots are aimed at adults who are working, or who are returning to work, with either low or intermediate skills. A range of delivery methods are being tested; most of the projects will make use of on-line technologies to a degree, as well as ‘blended learning’ that combines online and face-to-face learning.

My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has previously announced that Educational Technology (Edtech) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) would be a key feature of the NRS. Technological innovation and development, including in AI, will play an important part in improving the learning experience, design and effectiveness of online training.

The government has committed up to £30 million of funding. Working closely with the technology industry we will look to innovate, test and develop ways in which technological solutions can directly answer the specific needs of NRS users alongside all learners. Details of the funding will be announced in spring 2019.

It is only right that HE providers offer a range of options which suit all students, and that students have a real choice about where and how to study. The Review of Post-18 Education and Funding will consider how we can encourage and support more learning that is flexible, like part-time and distance learning, and enable more people to study close to where they live. The review will report later this year.

The regulatory system is also a means of opening up HE to a more diverse range of provision and therefore to a wider range of students. The Higher Education and Research Act, which came into law in 2017, placed a duty on the Office for Students to consider other modes of study when promoting choice and opportunity in the provision of HE.

Through recent HE reforms, we are working to support and encourage high quality new and innovative provision that has a strong offer for students, helping providers to navigate the regulatory system and we will continue to work with new providers to tackle any barriers that might arise.