Universities

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Thursday 14th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, for giving us the opportunity to debate this substantial and wide-ranging report from Universities UK and congratulate her on her masterly introduction. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, I am humbled by all the insightful contributions we have heard from around the House.

I must explain that there are many people on our Benches with expertise and an interest in this subject, but there is a Liberal Democrat “away day” today and I am the only one who has been released for the whole debate, so I am the only one who can speak. Luckily, my colleague my noble friend Lord Storey, has joined me at this stage.

We all recognise that universities are going through a very tough time at the moment. Student fees have not gone up for years, until the Government proposed an increase this year. The noble Lord, Lord Johnson, set out the implications of this. The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, also spoke about this and pointed out that universities would not get the full amount of the fee increase.

EU students are obviously not coming in such numbers since the folly that was Brexit. International students have been put off by regulations on visas, restrictions on staying post-study and the clampdown on accompanying relatives. Some of the decisions have been made in the face of reasoned arguments and opposition from universities, which, perversely, the previous Government chose to ignore. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Prashar, and others, I add my support to taking students and their dependants out of immigration figures. They are temporary and will return home at the end of their stay. The noble Lord, Lord Willetts, raised the issue of visa problems deterring international students. Surely, this is something we ought to be able to sort out. I gather that the noble Lord, Lord Waldegrave, is to be congratulated for bringing in fees for international students.

As the report makes clear, the country certainly needs more young people to progress to tertiary education. We would also argue that the acute shortage of skills means that many young people should be encouraged into apprenticeships and further education. Along with the right reverend Prelates the Bishops of Gloucester and Sheffield, the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, and others, we support the report’s proposal that universities and further education colleges should work together to allow talented youngsters, whether academically minded or not, to follow their ambitions and abilities and foster their skills through tertiary education. What plans do the Government have to ensure that further education is properly funded and its teachers appropriately remunerated? Their low pay is shockingly disproportionate to their achievement. How will the Government incentivise greater collaboration between universities and colleges? Of course, we heard a heartened plea for the pay of university staff as well.

In universities, researchers are often more highly prized than teachers. The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, set out the vital importance of research both for the status of the university and in economic terms. The noble Lord, Lord Patel, also raised research, as did the noble Baroness, Lady Young. The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, has just spoken of the importance of medical teaching and research; it is obviously a vital part of our universities. Yet it is the teachers who encourage and foster learning in the next generation.

Could the teaching grant be restored, for instance? If the national tutoring programme was extended to fund university students to tutor disadvantaged pupils at school, this could not only benefit schoolchildren by seeing teachers nearer their age, but it might encourage more students to teach. The national teacher shortage in schools is reaching critical point in some areas and subjects. Without schoolteachers, students will not be able to progress to tertiary education. What plans do the Government have to recruit and retain teachers in schools, colleges and universities?

Universities have a key role to play as agents of change, but they need assured funding. The recent controversy over some vice-chancellors’ pay has not been helpful; they bear huge responsibilities and need good pay packages. Obviously, cutting the pay of one person will not help universities balance the books, but it would perhaps be encouraging if some might consider taking less as an example to others.

We also know that part-time study is growing. As ever, we applaud the work of the Open University and Birkbeck, which both do so much to support and encourage students. Will the Government consider introducing credit-based fee caps to facilitate growing demand for accelerated part-time study? Will they extend eligibility for maintenance support to all part-time students, including distance learners? Such encouragement would reap dividends. Student hardship has been named a number of times and it is a real problem. The reinstatement of maintenance grants should be seriously considered. The Liberal Democrats have long supported grants rather than loans, on the basis that adults in particular are unlikely to want to incur further debt, whereas a grant may well help them to progress.

The noble Lord, Lord Rees, did not mention—but I will—that Trinity College and Cambridge University have set up a multimillion-pound PhD student programme. Obviously, not many colleges or universities could fund such an enterprising scheme. But both UKRI and the Student Loans Company report a fall in the number of doctoral starters, and Cambridge has thus stepped up to fund more than 25 PhDs. We know that many will become highly successful entrepreneurs and will pay back handsomely the funding they receive. Are there any plans perhaps to replicate this elsewhere? I accept that the funding at other universities will not be as lavish as at Trinity College and Cambridge.

I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, on his medieval English, and I was delighted to hear the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, add his support for this. My Oxford degree was due mainly to my love of medieval French, which has never been of any use to me whatever in later life, but it was fun at the time. I would be sorry if Oxford stopped offering medieval English as well as other medieval languages, because they add something to our national life.

This has been a truly inspiring and an authoritative debate. Universities are applying their efforts and brains to ensure that they continue to thrive, but many are having extreme difficulties with their finances. Good departments, and subjects, are being cut. My own subject, modern languages, is being cut at universities, which is a major mistake because, in this international world, we must be able to speak the languages of other countries. We have been stupid enough to cut ourselves off from the EU, so the very least we can do is learn to speak its languages.

I hope the Government will be able to respond with generosity in their support, even in these straitened times. I look forward to the Minister’s response.