1. Parliamentary recess
The House of Commons rose for conference recess on Thursday 16 September. It will return again on Monday 11 October 2010.
The House of Lords remains on recess, and will return on Tuesday 5 October 2010.
2. Party conferences
The Trades Union Congress took place on 13-16 September in Manchester. The general theme was of a major ‘fight-back’ from unions this autumn in opposition to the proposed public sector funding cuts.
Delegates at Congress backed a motion in support of the NUS-UCU National Demonstration, due to take place on Wednesday 10 November 2010.
Liberal Democrat Party conference opened on Saturday 18 September, with tuition fees, Trident and the coalition’s spending cuts all expected to be matters up for debate.
The NUS - Million+ fringe debate, ‘Funding Our Future? How to fund students and universities’, saw Simon Hughes MP stating that Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, was working hard to ensure civil servants understood that the Liberal Democrats would abolish tuition fees, and that it was his conviction that this would be the end result of the process. NUS President Aaron Porter said that he agreed with the comments of Dr Cable, made in July, that the current system could not be sustained, and argued that a progressive graduate contribution model would be a fairer alternative, removing barriers to entry to higher education.
Labour Party conference will be 26-30 September in Manchester, and will follow the announcement of the Labour leadership and Mayoral candidate contests on Saturday 25 September.
Conservative Party conference will be in Birmingham, from 3-6 October.
3. Parliamentary questions
Dromey: Higher Education: Finance
Tuesday 14 September | House of Commons - Oral Question
Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what his most recent estimate is of the average cost to the public purse of providing (a) a place at university and (b) an apprenticeship.
Mr Willetts: The information is as follows:
(a) There is no published estimate of the overall average cost to the public purse of an undergraduate university course due to differences in the definitions of which students are eligible for teaching grant and student support. Estimates are however available of expenditure per receiving student per year for each of these components separately:
Teaching expenditure
In academic year 2008/09, the average teaching grant expenditure per FTE funded student (both undergraduate and postgraduate) was around £4,200 per year. This grant is distributed to institutions by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Student support expenditure
In 2008/09, around 870,000 students were awarded student support in the form of grants and/or loans. In total £1.136 billion was received in grants at an average of £1,300 per student awarded student support. Maintenance and fee loans for these students totalled £4.698 billion, which would have an average budgetary cost(1) per student awarded student support of around £1,500.
(b) This Department and the Department for Education allocate funds to the Skills Funding Agency for Apprenticeships in England.
It is not possible to provide a meaningful average cost to the public purse of an apprenticeship. The public cost of delivering an apprenticeship varies significantly
depending on the industry; length of the programme; whether the framework is at level 2 or 3; and the apprentice's age. For example, the Skills Funding Agency estimate that it costs around £2,700 to deliver a level 2 adult apprenticeship in business and administration and about £16,000 for an advanced apprenticeship (level 3) in engineering for a 16 to 18-year-old.
(1) The budgetary cost represents the future cost to Government of subsidising and writing off the loans issued.
Morgan: Higher Education Funding Council for England: Operating Costs
Monday 13 September | House of Commons - Oral Question
Nicky Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the (a) administration and (b) running costs of the Higher Education Funding Council for England were in the most recent financial year for which figures are available. [14107]
Mr Willetts: As published in the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) Annual Report and Accounts for 2009-10, its total budget for administration was £18,560,000, of which £11,992,000 was for staffing costs. HEFCE spends 0.2 per cent of its total budget on administration.
HEFCE's admin budget is stated each year in its published accounts. As a proportion of its overall budget its admin spend is much lower than other comparable bodies. As part of the Chancellor's statement on 24 March, HEFCE along with other BIS NDPBs has been asked to reduce its admin budget for 2010-11 by at least 11 per cent.