Higher Education: Reform

Baroness Morris of Bolton Excerpts

Monday 12th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Morris of Bolton]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Wills, for bringing this important subject to the attention of your Lordships’ House. I will take the opportunity to make more general comments but my concerns have just as much effect on the arts, humanities and fundamental science.

In July, at the degree congregation of the University of Bolton, where I have the honour and privilege of being chancellor, I said, with confidence, that our university was well placed to meet the considerable challenges faced under the reforms to higher education. October 2011 had witnessed our biggest intake of students, with queues around the building to register. We had one of the healthiest bank balances in our history and had responded to the changes in a positive and innovative way, keeping our fees low to deliver value for the learner and the taxpayer, and restructuring our courses to ensure the best possible experience for our students.

Then came the downturn in demand. Universities like my own are being affected and are going to have to make and take some hard decisions to balance the books. Good people face losing their jobs. Large numbers of our world-leading universities, including Russell Group universities, have not been immune from the reduction of more than 60,000 first-year learners as new fee levels were introduced. At the same time, established universities face new competitive pressures, with commercial and for-profit entrants taking advantage of increased fees and market conditions. No one on this side of the House would ever be against the operation of the free market but there must be a level playing field, with similar freedoms or restrictions placed on all providers in the marketplace. For example, the student number control experienced by publicly funded universities is not being applied to the for-profit sector.

I have two questions I wish to raise on these issues but will first briefly mention student visas. A large proportion of Bolton’s overseas students come from India, and India seems to have decided that the UK is no longer welcoming to its students. We must never take any risks with our home security and have to ensure that students are genuinely coming here to study. However, international students establish strong and lasting links with the UK, and unless we make our processes more user-friendly and send a message to the world that the UK values overseas students, our universities and our country will be the poorer, both culturally and economically.

How do the new funding regime and the significant downturn in the take-up of places at universities in England affect the national interest in our increasingly knowledge-based economy? How long can we afford to have reduced participation in higher education and continue to compete with the best in the world? What mechanism do the Government propose to ensure fair competition between maintained and for-profit providers?

British universities are the envy of the world. They are huge contributors to the well-being of this country and to the Treasury’s coffers, and we must do all we can to ensure their continued health and success.