The University of Cambridge has axed their senior leaders Master’s apprenticeship despite receiving an “outstanding” rating across the board from Ofsted last month.

The apprenticeships, which were launched by the University’s Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) in 2019, delivered Level 7 programmes for senior leaders in criminology and police management, and a separate programme for architects.

At the time of the inspection, the Institute had 76 senior leader apprentices and 88 architect apprentices, however enrolments for the senior leaders course have since closed.

A spokesperson for the University of Cambridge confirmed that the senior leaders programme was no longer viable, with the University starting its last apprentice for this course in November 2023.

Ofsted praised the course’s “considerable academic rigour” and expert assessment, both of which enabled the 164 apprentices to “thrive”.

The senior leaders apprenticeship attracts £14,000 in funding per apprentice and lasts a minimum of two years. Despite no longer offering the scheme, the Institute is still accepting applications for the two-year long Criminology and Police Management Master’s, which costs £31,000.

Dr James Guzzard, Head of ICE and Director of Continuing Education, wrote in the annual report that 2022-2023 had put “punishing” levels of demand on staff.

He explained that because “the University’s offer of continuing, professional, and executive education is distributed across more than twenty providers, strategic frameworks are absent, meaning coordination and economies of scale are difficult to achieve, and internal competition a concerning distraction.”

This latest cancellation comes two years after the Institute dropped their apprentice-postgraduate certificate in research and and innovation management for academics.

Other training providers have also stopped their training programmes, with Dyson announcing earlier this year that they would pay £250,000 in training per employee instead of bearing the “heavy (and costly) administrative burden” of degree apprenticeships.