Master’s Level History Scholarships

Baroness Cash Excerpts

Monday 22nd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

It is important, first, to ensure the financial sustainability of our higher education sector, which this Government have taken action to do by increasing the maximum tuition fee cap. It is also important, as we set out in our White Paper, that universities are able to think carefully about what they want to specialise in and the way in which they collaborate—something that has not happened enough in our higher education sector—to maintain access to important subjects such as history and humanities. In doing that, we will make it more likely that access to these important subjects can be maintained for students at all levels.

[Baroness Cash (Con)]

My Lords, I join from these Benches in congratulating noble Lord, Lord Barber of Chittlehampton, on all his work to support the study of history. Higher education resources, however, are under strain, and the IFS has reported independently that some courses have persistently poor outcomes and very high student loan write-off, of up to 70%—not history, but some other creative courses. What steps will the Minister take to ensure any future cuts are made first to those courses, rather than to the core disciplines and humanities, such as history?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I am sure the noble Baroness will be very pleased to know that we made an announcement this morning—which, for some unknown reason, did not get quite the attention I would have hoped—precisely about her point. For a vast majority of students, going to university is worth while for their learning and lifetime earnings, but there are some courses which are not providing that opportunity. We have already enabled the Office for Students to investigate and challenge where provision is not of a high enough quality; we will link any future increase in tuition fees to quality and we will take further action to enable the Office for Students to limit the availability of courses which are not providing students with what they deserve in the future. We will have more to say about that when, perhaps, more people are listening.