1. Mandelson launches top-up fees review
Lord Mandelson has appointed Lord Browne of Madingley to chair the independent review of higher education funding and student finance on Monday 9 November. In addition to Lord Browne, the review will have six other members: Michael Barber, Diane Coyle, David Eastwood, Julia King, Rajay Naik and Peter Sands. The review fulfils the commitment made by the Government during the Commons stages of the Higher Education Act 2004 to review the operation of variable tuition fees after these had been in force for three years.
The Review will analyse the challenges and opportunities facing higher education and their implications for student financing and support. It will examine the balance of contributions to higher education funding by taxpayers, students, graduates and employers.
Its primary task is to make recommendations to Government on the future of fees policy and financial support for full and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate students.
In assessing options the Review will be expected to take into account: the goal of widening participation, affordability, the desirability of simplification of the system of support.
The Review will work with the Office for Fair Access and HEFCE and collaborate with Professor Adrian Smith’s review of postgraduate study. Its work will also take into account the conclusions of Professor Sir Martin Harris’s review on promoting access to higher education.
The Review is expected to report by the autumn of 2010.
2. Government outlines strategy on skills and growth
Pat McFadden, Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills repeating a statement made in the House of Lords by Lord Mandelson, Business Secretary, outlined ‘An active Government approach to equipping the country for globalisation… ensuring that we have the skills that underwrite the industries and jobs of the future.
He spoke of plans to ‘mesh’ the ‘skills system’ with the UK’s university system to equip unemployed people with skills, in key sectors, essential to a strong recovery, to change the focus of the UK’s skills system so that a new premium is put on higher skills, to empower learners through more choice and better information to drive up the quality and to dramatically reduce the number of publicly supported bodies delivering skills policy.He said the Government’s expectations of business will rise, that courses and training will be designed in direct response to local and national employers needs and the Government ‘will also expect businesses to make a greater contribution to the funding of skills training for their work force.’
David Willetts, Conservative Shadow Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property gave a mixed response, welcoming parts of the statement, especially those which he or the Conservative party had already advocated; practical apprenticeships getting UCAS points, scholarships for apprentices to go on to university and simplifying the ‘very complicated burdens’ students face at the moment.
He went on to outline a range of concerns; beginning with the hypocrisy of claiming simplification whilst introducing Young Person’s Learning Agency, a separate National Apprenticeship Service and a Skills Funding Agency.
He reaffirmed the importance of replacing migrant workers with better-skilled British workers and pointed out that since the Labour Government came into power 1.4 million of the 1.7 million new jobs — more than 80 per cent. — have gone to migrant workers.
He asked if McFadden would confirm that the ‘£100 million of cuts that he was proposing would mean the loss of an extra 133,000 learner places, and that if he raises the full £350 million of savings, a third of a million learners will lose out?
McFadden replied by saying that the sector was ‘flat on its back’ when Willetts' party was in power and assured the Minister that all his initial statements held up under scrutiny.
Liberal Democrat universities spokesperson Stephen Williams spoke of an attempt, through contrivance of the Labour and Conservative front benches, in the form of the ‘fees review’, to establish variable market fees after the next general election which he said would reduce access to University.
Stephen Williams started by stating ‘the Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property (Lord Mandelson)… on Monday made a written statement on the long-awaited fees review, which has angered thousands of students throughout the country, including about 100 presidents of student unions, who are gathered upstairs in Committee Room 11’
He stated ‘the unemployment rate among 16 to 24-year-olds is 19.8 per cent., which is a far greater proportion than for the population as a whole’, and said ‘Young people have borne the brunt of this recession’. He went on to outline a plethora of concerns he had toward the narrow focus of Mandelson’s announcement earlier in the week.
Pat McFadden, Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, responded by attacking the Liberal Democrats lack of support for the Government’s 50. per cent target. And said the Government was doing more to catch up to other countries standards of further education and more to tackle youth unemployment.
3. David Lammy announces appointments to HEFCE Board
David Lammy, Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property repeated an announcement from Higher Education Funding Council for England Board (HEFCE) in regards to the appointment of four new members to the board which will work with the Higher Education review panel.
Madeleine Atkins, Vice-Chancellor of Coventry University; Ruth Farwell, Vice-Chancellor of Buckinghamshire New University; Shirley Pearce, Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University; and Anil Ruia, Director of Wrengate Limited have been appointed to the HEFCE Board.
Mr. Lammy commented: "I am very pleased to be able to make these appointments. The members bring a wide range of business and public sector experience to HEFCE."
NUS have repeatedly highlighted the importance of strong student voice in the review to ensure the review is not overly business focused.
4. Parliamentary Questions
Labour Barry Sheerman MP - University Access
Barry Sheerman MP, Chair of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, stated he hoped that access to university would be given to qualified students who spoke good English, and that these students would be encouraged to work harder.
David Lammy, Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, said that he hoped Mr Sheerman would welcome the use of contextual data in the Higher education framework, but said that he would not comment on the advice he had offered to students.
Responding to Mr. Sheerman’s outrageous comments NUS vice-president Aaron Porter said times had changed since the Huddersfield MP enjoyed a free university education in the 1960s.
“Barry Sheerman is evidently out of touch,” he said. “Students are working harder than ever to earn their degrees. On top of this they are now working a record number of part-time jobs to support themselves financially, thanks to the top-up fees policy which Mr Sheerman voted for.
“As chair of the select committee it is particularly outrageous that he should be making such a statement, representing a party that came to power with education as a top priority.
“Mr Sheerman should stop pontificating in the House of Commons and visit a university in his constituency so he can find out what life is actually like for students.”
Conservative David Willetts MP - Higher education admissions
David Willetts MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property asked the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Lord Mandelson asked how many of the 10,000 additional student places available in 2010-11 will be for first-year students.
David Lammy, Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, responded by saying; ‘HEFCE is still in the process of allocating funded additional student numbers (ASN) to institutions for 2010-11. Until that process is completed it is not known what the balance will be between places for new entrants and places to meet the needs arising from previous years' expansion.’
Liberal Democrat Charles Kennedy - Student Loans Company
Charles Kennedy MP raised concerns about problems in the Student Loans Company, and hoped for an enquiry to prevent backlogs occurring again.
Responding, Higher Education Minister David Lammy said that the former Vice Chancellor of the South Bank University was to lead an inquiry. He reiterated the apology made in Parliament when this problem emerged.
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