Dyson Technology Institute is to be given power to award its own degrees
Dyson Technology Institute is to be given power to award its own degrees
The technology institute which was founded by the inventor Sir James Dyson will soon be given the power to award its own degrees - the first institute to be able to do this within the new wave of alternative providers. The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology opened in 2017 and is situated on the site of Dyson’s design centre in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. The Institute has 15- engineering undergraduates who pay no tuition fees and receive a full-time wage during their four years of study and work alongside Dyson’s staff.
Originally it was decided that the institute would award degrees that were validated by the University of Warwick.
The Office for Students, the high education regulator in England has now announced the the institute will be able to award degrees in its own name from next year - the first institute to do so under legislation that has created the route in 2017.
Dyson is said to have spent more that £30m on the institute and its campus, including lecture theatres, labs and study-bedroom pods. Claiming to attract more applications from qualified A level school-leavers than most Oxford courses, the institute has claimed they have 14 students applying for each place, all expecting to gain As in A-level sciences and maths or technology.
Dyson, a vocal Brexit supporter, has said in an interview with the Guardian: “To be the first higher education institution to be granted new degree awarding powers is a testament to the hard work of undergraduates and the academic team. It has not been easy.” He also added that, “Britain is falling short by 60,000 engineers a year according to current estimates and is failing to encourage more female engineers, meaning that they represent just 18% of those studying engineering.
“At the same time, students are burdened with appalling debts while at university. The average undergraduate today leaves with over £50,000 worth of loans, which takes years to pay off – if ever paid off at all.”
Dyson has admitted that they still have a long way to go in recruiting more young people as engineers, with women making up only a third of the institute’s undergraduates.
He said to the Guardian: “There is no doubt that the academic classes in Britain still look down their noses at those with a practical bent, but there is also a wider image problem: engineering is seen as boring and difficult.
“This stigma, and the assumption you need to spend your days deep in complex physics, maths and chemistry, is part of the reason that the shortage of engineers in the UK is so acute.”