My Lords, I congratulate UUK and the authors of the blueprint for change, which aims over a 10-year timescale to strengthen the universities sector. While our universities are one of this country’s great strengths and more than hold their own internationally, we cannot be complacent.
While the decision to increase fees in line with inflation will be welcomed by the sector, more innovative thinking by the Government on how to finance universities in the medium and longer term is really important and necessary. I am sceptical about continuing to load all the increases in funding on graduates. Although initially young applicants from disadvantaged homes were not deterred by high fee repayments, there are signs that this is no longer the case. Moreover, mature students have been deterred for a long time. What consideration are the Government giving to longer-term funding? What mechanisms, if any, are being set up for a radical review considering all the options, which might even include the possibility of a contribution from affluent parents?
The report’s chapter on expanding opportunity notes that there is a continuing large gap in the participation rates of disadvantaged students compared with those from more privileged backgrounds. The poorer areas of the country have far fewer applicants than wealthier ones. It proposes that the Government and the sector collaborate in reaching a target of 70% participation in level 4 attainment by the age of 25. I would have preferred it to say by the age of 30 since, in my experience, there are many mature students wishing and trying to return to study between the ages of 25 and 30.
The target of 70% is ambitious, and it must include an improved offering for FE as well as a much better apprenticeship scheme than is currently planned. How do the Government intend to distribute the rather small expenditure increase that has been announced for the endlessly neglected FE colleges? What incentives, if any, are they planning to encourage meaningful university and FE partnerships? Would she agree that the national training programme for disadvantaged pupils in the school system mentioned in the report should be extended to FE colleges, so that their students too can be encouraged and supported to progress to university, as well as being helped to improve their skills?
The concept of lifelong learning and how to put it into practice is not really addressed in the report, although many of its recommendations are relevant.
A commitment to attaching a high priority to lifelong learning by the Government would be welcome. We all need to go on learning throughout our lives.
I turn now to the UK’s role in global higher education. It is surely right to continue to benefit from the recruitment of large numbers of overseas students, which was introduced by the Blair Government 25 years ago. The obsession with immigration figures has recently posed a threat to granting visas to overseas students which include a short period of employment in the UK after they graduate. I, and a number of other speakers in this debate, have asked previous Governments to take students out of the immigration figures, as happens among most of our competitors. Will the new Government address this? An internationally diverse student body benefits both British and foreign students, who will work in an increasingly globalised world. They need the knowledge and the curiosity about the world beyond these shores to do so.
As the report makes clear, UK universities need to collaborate in research with colleagues around the world. Brexit damaged our opportunities to do so in the EU. The restoration of the UK’s participation in the Horizon programme is hugely welcome, but more joint projects must be developed between research-intensive universities in this country and right across the world if we are to retain our high status internationally in research and innovation. The report asks for a global strategy from the Government. It is surely needed if we are to maximise our opportunities and our research output.
I conclude in hoping that the Government will continue to respect the autonomy of universities. Of course they need to be regulated, but that regulation, as the report argues, needs to be much more effective and efficient. It should also support more flexible courses, which can be followed by older students during their working lives.
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