Commentary on Sections of the Act Part 2 – Additional Learning Needs Higher education courses provided by further education institutions Section 86 – Students at further education institutions undertaking higher education courses
182.Various functions of local authorities and governing bodies of FEIs in Part 2 relate to young people who are enrolled as students at an FEI. Section 86 provides that an enrolled student undertaking a course of higher education provided by the FEI, is not to be treated as an enrolled student of the FEI for the purposes of Part 2. However if an enrolled student is being provided by the FEI with both higher education and education (defined in section 99 to exclude higher education) or training, the student is only a higher education student in relation to the higher education and not for the other education or training (subsection (4)).
183.The effect is that functions of local authorities and governing bodies of FEIs which relate to enrolled students do not apply to students to the extent that they are higher education students. For example, a governing body of an FEI is not under the duty to decide (in section 11) whether a student for whom it is only providing higher education has ALN. A course of higher education is a course of any description mentioned in Schedule 6 to the Education Reform Act 1988.