1. Budget sees 20,000 extra university places and extension of young person’s guarantee
This week’s Budget included a one-off additional funding of £270 million for 2010-11 to create an additional 20,000 university places. This will be aimed particularly at ‘STEM’ subjects, such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
The budget, the last to be announced by Chancellor or the Exchequer Alistair Darling before the coming general election, also saw the creation of a new £35m university enterprise capital fund to support innovation and help start-up companies set up by new graduates to get going.
Alistair Darling has also promised that both the guarantee of work or training for unemployed 16 and 17 year olds and guarantee of work or training for young people aged 18-24 who have been unemployed for six months will be extended for an additional year, both now going on until March 2012.
Outside of further and higher education, Darling announced a new £2.5bn package for small business to boost skills and innovation; £94bn in small business loans from the largely government-owned RBS and Lloyds banks; and stamp duty scrapped for homes below £250,000 for first-time buyers, paid for by increasing stamp duty on residential property sales over £1m by 5% from April 2011.
In terms of the government’s finances, borrowing this year forecast to be £167bn - £11bn lower than predicted in December. The treasury now expects government borrowing to fall from £163bn in 2010-11 to £74bn by 2014-15.
2. NUS Accommodation survey finds huge rise in student housing
Student housing rents have risen by 22% in the past three years, a survey conducted by jointly by NUS and Unipol has revealed. Rent for a student room has risen from an average of £81.18 in 2006-07 to £98.99 in 2009-10, a rise of nearly £20 a week.
This rise in price in part reflects a trend towards higher-end accommodation - for example, while in 2001 only 20 per cent of accommodation was ensuite, by 2006 this figure had risen to 43 per cent. Last year, indeed, almost 50 per cent of bedspaces on offer were ensuite. NUS have expressed concerns, however, that this has left many students without a proper choice in to the type of accommodation they wish to take, and is serving to make ‘living out’ increasingly difficult for poorer students.
3. Members to the Board of the Young People’s Learning Agency appointed
The member’s of the new Board of the Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA) have been announced. The YPLA will be running from April 2010 as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) to support local authorities discharge their planning and commissioning functions and to ensure funding and budgetary control within the system.
4. Minimum wage rate and new rate for apprentices announced
The new minimum rate of £5.93 has been announced. This follows the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission (LPC).
Rates of £4.92 per hour for 18-20 year olds (a 1.9% increase on the current £4.83 rate) and £3.64 per hour for 16-17 year olds (a 2% increase on the current £3.57 rate) were also set.
A new minimum wage for apprenticeships has also been introduced for the first time, at £2.50 an hour, following pressure from NUS and others.
5. Lord Mandelson announces new postgraduate scholarships
The Government will be investing £2.5 million in a new scholarship scheme, Lord Mandelson announced this week. The ‘Newton Scholarships’- designed to target, recruit and retain the world’s best research students- will provide £25,000 support for the 100 best candidates wanting to study at postgraduate level in the UK.
6. Parliamentary questions
Hopkins - Adult Education
Tuesday 23 March 2010 | House of Commons - Written Answer
Kevin Brennan: The current policy for complaints from a student aged 19 years or over is that they can complain to the relevant regional office of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) which funds the further education college or sixth form college in question. The LSC would only consider such complaints once the college's own internal complaints procedure has been fully exhausted.
From 1 April 2010, complaints from learners aged 19 years and over will be dealt with by the chief executive of Skills Funding. Complaints about sixth form colleges will be dealt with by the relevant local authority and subsequently directed to the Local Government Ombudsman if the complainant continues to remain dissatisfied. All complaints from Apprentices will be directed to the Skills Funding Agency after exhausting the provider mechanisms.
The Legal Team of the Learning and Skills Council are currently revising the complaints procedures for both the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency in preparation for the transition on 1 April 2010.
MacShane - Higher Education (Anti-Semitism)
Tuesday 23 March 2010 | House of Commons - Written Answer
Mr. MacShane: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent reports he has received on (a) anti-Semitic and (b) anti-Israel speeches made by speakers at British university campuses; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lammy: The Department has received a number of letters from Jewish students following a Jewish student lobby of Parliament about "hate speakers" on some university campuses. My right hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) has also written to me about a reported anti-Israel speaker appearing at two universities.
Decisions about external speakers must rest with universities themselves. In this area universities are bound by the law both in protecting freedom of speech on campus, even if that free expression is controversial, and protecting students and staff against harassment or violence. The Government have made clear that there is no place for anti-Semitism or any other form of racism or intolerance in HE. Universities have access to guidance from both Government and the sector itself on promoting good campus relations, which draw out the considerations institutions need to give to free expression on campus and to addressing illegal behaviour.
There is a very clear dividing line set out in law between political debate, discussion of doctrine or faith and incitement to commit or glorify violence or terrorism. This line should not be thought vague. When the law is broken on campus those responsible must be reported to the relevant authorities. There is both a moral duty and importantly a legal obligation to do so.
MacShane - Students (university fees)
Wednesday 24 March 2010 | House of Commons - Written Answer
Mr. MacShane: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will bring forward proposals to grant high-ranking universities more flexibility in relation to the setting of the level of university fees.
Mr. Lammy: The Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance, which is being led by Lord Browne of Madingley, is currently looking at the balance of contributions to the cost of higher education between students, graduates, taxpayers and employers. The review has recently launched a call for proposals asking for suggestions for the future higher education funding system, and is expected to report by this autumn. It would be inappropriate for me to pre-empt its recommendations.
Cotter - Adult Education
Thursday 25 March 2010 | House of Lords - Oral Question
Further Education: Funding
Question
11.46 am
Asked By Lord Cotter
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he undertook a cost-benefit analysis before deciding to reduce the funding of adult education in further education colleges.
The First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Lord President of the Council (Lord Mandelson): My Lords, the decisions that have been taken in this area have, of course, been based on rigorous analysis of how to maintain a strong skills system that helps to get people into work, not least for adult learners, while finding the necessary efficiencies required to reduce the deficit.
The Government are confident that we will continue to sustain a strong base of adult education in further education colleges.
Lord Cotter: I thank the Secretary of State. The importance of skills training has been emphasised time and again. It is concerning that my local college, Weston College, reports that £1.7 million is being taken away from the £6.7 million allocated to adult learners in the area. In addition, vulnerable adults over 25 and those with severe learning difficulties are not getting support at all. Surely this hits hard at the heart of the commitment to provide vocational training and jobs.
Lord Mandelson: My Lords, the Government have a strong record of investment in further education and skills. The core investment remains high, at unprecedented levels. Despite efficiency savings, more funds than ever are going into post-16 education and training for this next financial year, including, I am glad to say, £8.2 billion for 16-to-18 learning and £3.5 billion for adult training places. I know that future adult learner reductions will be challenging for some colleges, but transitional funding arrangements will protect colleges from financial difficulty and I will make sure that that remains the case.
Lord Elton: My Lords, is the Minister saying that these cuts will have no effect on outcomes? If not, what does he expect the effect to be?
Lord Mandelson: No, my Lords, I am not denying that there will be an effect. All I am saying is that the modest reductions that we are proposing, in line with our commitment to reduce the deficit over the coming four years, require belt-tightening of this sort across the public sector. I cannot exempt FE colleges or adult learning courses from that, but this has to be seen in the context of the colossal catch-up investment that the Government have made available during the past 10 years, which we are not proposing to put into reverse.
Lord Martin of Springburn: My Lords, will the Secretary of State encourage the colleges to take on adult apprentices in the building industry? If we train adults to become electricians, plasterers and bricklayers, they can become self-employed very easily.
Lord Mandelson: My Lords, the Government always insist on the value of training and adult skills for future jobs and growth and I underline that again today. Since 1997, we have expanded apprenticeships from 65,000 starts, which we inherited from the previous Government, to 240,000 starts in 2008-09, with the number rising since then. We are funding more apprenticeships than ever before in our country. In the financial year 2010-11 we will be investing over £1 billion. Of course, we can do better and we will seek to do so within the tighter financial climate that we are now entering.
Lord Hunt of Wirral: Is the noble Lord aware that the number of those unemployed for longer than six months has now risen to 1.24 million and that there has been a substantial rise in the economically inactive to over one in five of the working-age population? Does he not agree that further education for adults provides people with an invaluable second chance in life? He has already enjoyed three chances in life. Will he continue to deny this second chance for others?
Lord Mandelson: My Lords, it is true that I have been serving a long and recurrent apprenticeship for my current role. That is why, among other reasons, I am firmly committed to apprenticeship training for others. However, the figures that the noble Lord quotes about economically inactive people mask the fact that a rather large number of them are in full-time training and education, even though they may be registered as looking for work. While I strongly welcome the noble Lord's support for further expansion of apprenticeships, training and further education, I hope that he will be able to have a word with his friend the shadow Chancellor to make sure that such activities are exempted from his plans for large-scale spending and investment cuts. The shadow Chancellor has made it clear again today that he has those in mind for the country should he ever be elected.