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Middlesex University believes it has created a blueprint for the kind of associate degree ministers have in mind, writes Tony Tysome.

The programme's key element is that a quarter of the work is at honours degree level.

Associate degree students, who can take the course full time for two years or part time over three years on one of five vocational "pathways", must complete a dissertation-style project as well as "key skills" modules that include research methods and developing transferable skills.

It means that a Middlesex associate degree graduate could enter the third year of an honours degree.

The Middlesex model is partly based on ideas in a Higher Education Quality Council report, Choosing to Change.