Universities
Baroness Prashar Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Prashar (CB)
My Lords, to clear any confusion, I have swapped with the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, as she is currently on the Woolsack. I declare an interest as a former chancellor of De Montfort University. I currently sit on the international advisory board of IE University in Madrid and I do some ad hoc work with my local university, Royal Holloway.
I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, for initiating this debate and introducing it so well, but I also congratulate UUK for taking this timely initiative to produce the blueprint for change. The recommendations in this report are of course intended, as we heard, to achieve five big shifts. However, these shifts cannot be seen as a stand-alone. They are integral to the five missions of this Government and part of the Government’s mantra of “fixing the foundations”. If we are serious about achieving these shifts, a coherent strategy for our universities and higher education sector, which is integral to these missions, is essential. The future of our universities cannot be left to the vagaries of market forces. To avoid decline and maintain our excellence, the Government must intervene to create an enabling environment for universities to become financially sustainable and incentivise them to excel and deliver for communities, society and internationally.
At the same time, universities and other institutions need to adapt and change to meet the challenges of the future. I am grateful that this has been recognised in the report itself. The recommendations of the report, the Government’s plan for the reform of higher education as stated in their manifesto, and recent announcements about increasing the fee cap and making further investment conditional on major reform are all welcome. The direction of travel is encouraging but, as we have heard in this debate, a lot more needs to happen.
I want to amplify two areas of this report: one is the question of local growth and the other is global reputation and impact. On local development, the needs of employers, the skills gaps and a changing technological environment, the report rightly highlights the recent overemphasis on STEM subjects. Employers recognise that arts and the humanities equip students with a valuable and versatile set of skills—skills that are likely to become even more essential as technologies, automation and AI continue to transform traditional professions. It is therefore critical that arts and humanities provision continues to be available. The recent decline in the arts and humanities is worrying. It has rendered humanities and arts education vulnerable to cuts and closures. Are the Government going to take action to reverse this trend and give greater support to the humanities? I was glad to hear the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, emphasise this point.
In recent years, there has been a shift in universities responding to local and regional needs. I highlight another example of my local university, Royal Holloway. During 2019-20, Royal Holloway contributed £190 million in gross value added to the local economy, as well as 2,700 jobs in the borough of Runnymede. The university has signed a civic agreement for Surrey with Surrey County Council, the University of Surrey and the University for the Creative Arts. This is a declaration of the partners’ shared commitment to working together to help grow a sustainable economy, tackle health inequalities, enable a greener future, and foster empowering and thriving communities.
Such approaches need to be multiplied and scaled up. At present, they are patchy, and the report rightly argues that there is a need for stability, consistency, better co-ordinated engagement through devolution and local structures—such as industrial strategy councils and Skills England—collaboration between universities and investment in the Higher Education Innovation Fund. A critical question is whether the Government can ensure that universities play a full role in supporting growth, especially in areas where there are no mayoral combined authorities. I would have liked to have seen greater recognition in the report of the role that universities can play through local engagement with communities and civil society organisations to create social capital, which helps build cohesion and inclusion. That is the social purpose of universities in tackling society’s challenges.
My second point is about global reach, reputation and impact. I was very pleased that the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, gave a broader perspective to this. It is not purely about international students but about recognising that a global strategy, and leveraging the potential that universities offer by bringing together education, training, research and global development to harness global reach, reputation and impact, should be coupled with a coherent strategy to encourage international students. Such an approach would have multiple benefits. It would create opportunities, foster prosperity, develop knowledge and make strategic use of our universities’ global reputation to build bilateral co-operation in trade and development.
As we know, one area where the UK excels is in research and innovation and the excellence of our universities, where we should endeavour to enhance our leadership and be at the leading edge. In an era of geopolitical shifts and growing competition, there is a need to develop a better understanding of universities’ role in diplomacy and foreign policy. The Government should support universities by investing in the broader infrastructure that supports universities and businesses globally—for example, the British Council. It will be helpful to hear the Government’s plans for supporting the wider structure.
Finally, are the Government considering removing student figures from the migration statistics? This has been a running sore and has contributed to this issue being politicised. It has impacted on our ability to attract international students. Such a removal would change perceptions and enable a more strategic approach to the recruitment of international students.
Ethnicity Pay Gap
Baroness Prashar Excerpts(8 months ago)
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Baroness Prashar
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the growing number of companies reporting their ethnicity pay gap and of the case for legislating for mandatory reporting.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Baroness Barran) (Con)
My Lords, it is encouraging to see more employers choosing to report their ethnicity pay data. Rather than mandating reporting, which may not be appropriate for all employers, our guidance supports those who wish to report by providing a consistent approach and advice on achieving meaningful comparisons. The latest ONS statistics show that it is difficult to compare data across up to 19 different ethnic groups.
Baroness Prashar (CB)
I thank the Minister for that Answer. It is good that a number of companies are now beginning to report voluntarily on this, but why are the Government reluctant to make it mandatory, given that in 2017 it was made mandatory for gender disparity?
Baroness Barran (Con)
I thank the noble Baroness for her Question. As she will understand, this is a much more complicated area to get meaningful data on. There are five broad categories of ethnicity that are used by the ONS, for example, and 19 specific ethnicities. The Government’s concern is that there is a real risk of misleading data, particularly among smaller firms that may have very few members of staff from a minority community, and therefore a change in one or two people could distort the figures.
Higher Education
Baroness Prashar Excerpts(9 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Baroness Prashar (CB)
My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, for securing this important debate and for his very thoughtful and pertinent remarks, particularly about the role of education in opening minds and meeting aspirations. I was glad that the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, amplified that too.
I will focus on the university sector in all its diversity, and two interrelated issues affecting the sector: funding and international students. Our universities are a success story and one of our major assets. They are essential not only for education for education’s sake but as the bedrock of our science, research, innovation, creative output and much more. At present, universities face many challenges and unrealistic expectations. Some of them have been mentioned in the course of the debate. Of course these need to be responded to, but without making what I call inconsistent compromises. Otherwise, we are in danger of frittering away our comparative advantage and damaging our major asset. The comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Wolf, were pertinent in that context.
As we have heard, domestic undergraduate tuition fees, which are the main source of funding, have been frozen for the past decade. Meanwhile, inflation has driven up universities’ operating costs. To make ends meet, universities have become reliant on attracting international students. The recent negative and ill-informed rhetoric around immigration, and linking it to international students, has had the effect of reduced demand from international students, as shown by figures produced by Universities UK. Work by PwC shows that this could put four-fifths of universities in deficit. We have had what has been called a yo-yo approach to international students. We closed the post-study work route in 2011, reversed that in 2019, and now we are applying the brakes again, making it impossible for universities to plan ahead. This is the consequence of continuing to count international students as part of the immigration figures, thus creating a perception that they are a burden, which we all know is far from the truth.
Blaming international students, and not taking positive steps to present accurate information about the benefits they bring to this country, is disingenuous and not in our national interest. This is a policy failure for which we are making international students scapegoats and, in the process, hurting our universities and, in effect, shooting ourselves in the foot. Unless the funding issue is addressed, it will lead to cutbacks in research and affect salaries, learning and facilities. It also risks the potential for innovation and will blunt our competitiveness. Easing academic entry requirements for international students is not the answer; it will actually compound the problem.
In a very thoughtful paper published recently, Professor Shitij Kapur, the vice-chancellor of King’s College, argued that universities are trapped in a “triangle of sadness” between students burdened with debt, a stretched Government who have allowed tuition fees to fall far behind inflation and beleaguered staff who feel caught in the middle. He says that the fate of our universities cannot be left to the vagaries of the decisions of overseas students. He argues for inflation-related uplifts in student fees, as planned under the Theresa May Government, linked to quality, and he questions whether a single funding framework is suitable for all needs.
I am not suggesting that that is the only solution. We have had reference to the funding model; indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, talked about a possible commission to look at funding. My fundamental point is that we need to address the question of funding if we are to reap the benefit of this national asset we keep talking about. If we want universities to continue to make a significant contribution, we need to address the question of funding universities and their sustainability. Therefore, I ask the Minister whether there are plans to settle the uncertainty around our policy with regard to international students and take them out of the immigration figures. Has any consideration been given to setting up a commission to look at funding?
Education: Music and the Arts
Baroness Prashar Excerpts(3 years, 2 months ago)
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Baroness Barran (Con)
My noble friend will understand that I cannot announce the national plan before it has been published, but I hope that he will be delighted when he sees the plan in its detail, with its focus on disadvantaged children.
Baroness Prashar (CB)
My Lords, arts help to transcend differences and divisions—they help to unite—but the increased focus on STEM subjects and the greater value put on the English baccalaureate have led to a narrowing of the curriculum and disproportionately affected arts education, particularly in disadvantaged areas. There was a manifesto commitment to a secondary school arts premium, which was confirmed in the 2020 Budget. When will the £90 million arts premium materialise?
Baroness Barran (Con)
The noble Baroness will understand that I cannot prejudge the announcements from the Chancellor on Wednesday. When my noble friend Lady Berridge was in this role, she was clear that choices had to be made as a result of the pandemic—hence the delay.
Equality of Opportunity for Young People
Baroness Prashar Excerpts(5 years, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Prashar (CB)
My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, for securing this debate and providing us with the opportunity to discuss the issues facing young people today. I particularly commend her efforts to engage young people through social media: last week, when we debated the toxic nature of public discourse, I suggested that we often talk about social media’s negative impacts but not how it can be used positively. It has been really refreshing to see engagement with young people and an effort to get them to participate.
In recent months, a number of reports have highlighted that we have an increasing divergence in equality of opportunity for young people and that social mobility is stagnant. The Social Mobility Commission’s recent report said that inequality is now entrenched in Britain, from birth to work. It concluded that being born privileged still means you usually remain privileged and that the dominance of background factors on future outcomes is further compounded by gender, ethnicity and disability.
One of the contributory factors is of course the discrepancy in educational opportunities in further and higher education, so vividly illustrated by my noble friend Lady Bull. While there have been substantial improvements in university participation among students from disadvantaged backgrounds in recent years, the gap remains significant. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to go to university and more likely to drop out. Those who do complete their studies start their careers with huge debts. Many have to work to support themselves while studying and have anxiety about their job prospects when they qualify. The Intergenerational Fairness and Provision Committee, already referred to, suggested that there may be a mismatch between the jobs graduates expect and the jobs available.
If we are to offer young people true equality of opportunity, reform of the funding of further and higher education must be one of the strategic milestones to achieving it, as well as ensuring that education aligns with business needs—indeed, we have to look at funding cuts too. Will the Minister tell the House what reforms the Government are considering with regard to funding and what action, if any, they are taking to align education and business needs?
The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that those who attend Russell group universities have earnings 10% higher for women and 13% higher for men. The university that a student attends is impacted by her socioeconomic background. There is also evidence that an attainment gap between students of different ethnic origins exists at the vast majority of universities; a gap that cannot be explained by a student’s background or prior qualifications. A recent report by Universities UK and the NUS called for further research to review what works in addressing these inequalities. Will the Minister say what plans, if any, there are to look into this area?
Good quality apprenticeships have the potential to be an important vehicle for social mobility, with lifetime earnings on average better than many degrees, and they offer the opportunity to earn while you learn. However, according to the Sutton Trust, despite the recent growth in apprenticeships there are still relatively few degree apprenticeships each year compared to undergraduate places, and disadvantaged young people are less likely to take up the best apprenticeships compared to their better-off peers.
There is a need to provide more high-quality apprenticeships—not just boosting the numbers, or employers converting existing employees as a way of claiming the money. As there is no centralised system for apprenticeships, the need for better advice is even more crucial; as is awareness of the apprenticeship route among teachers, parents and students. There is also a need to rebalance the value attributed to higher and further education and apprenticeships, to ensure that different and more appropriate pathways to education are better known to students and given equal value.
The other area is housing, which has already been highlighted by the noble Baroness, Lady Suttie, and by the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, in her introduction. The Intergenerational Fairness and Provision Committee argued that the Government are not taking action to provide a sufficient supply of affordable housing. We have seen an increase in the number of young people living in private rented accommodation and a decrease in 25 to 34 year-olds in owner-occupation. This is a worrying trend. The noble Baroness, Lady Suttie, talked about her experience of buying a house at the age of 24.
We need action in at least two areas to deliver equality of opportunity. The first is housing affordability; that is, ensuring that house ownership remains in reach of this generation. It is disappointing that the Government are withdrawing the Help to Buy ISA in November, which supported saving for a mortgage deposit. Declaring an interest as a non-executive director of Nationwide Building Society, I can tell the House that, on average, Nationwide members with a Help to Buy ISA have been able to have their own home two years earlier and have required £1,000 less as a deposit than standard first-time buyers. Perhaps the Government might consider not withdrawing Help to Buy ISAs.
Secondly, we need a better private rented sector. Young people are vulnerable to bad practice. Again, in 2017, Nationwide set up the private rented sector partnership board, bringing together representatives of landlords, tenants and agents to improve the situation. The board has developed some themes for change in the sector and has set out the framework for government in this area so that there can be a strategy to tackle poor quality and affordability.
A housing policy needs to focus not just on building houses but on other factors which contribute to creating flourishing communities and a healthy work/life balance for the well-being of our young people. I am aware that the Government are taking the problems facing young people seriously and have set up a committee to look at inequality, but there is urgency to draw all the findings of several studies and research together to develop a more co-ordinated, comprehensive strategy to tackle this entrenched problem. Part of the problem is that there is no holistic approach, as a number of other noble Lords have said.
Non-profit organisations and businesses are partnering to do this. Among others, Cumberland Lodge, an education charity which I chair, and the Social Mobility Business Partnership, of which I am a patron, are developing an initiative to tackle this—so watch this space. I mention the organisations I am associated with not to advertise them but to illustrate that some of these initiatives are showing the way. What we need is government support and action to implement them and scale them up. In that sense, I really support the suggestion put forward by the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, that we should have a strategy for young people like we have an industrial strategy. The time has come when we cannot work in silos; we need the structural reforms that the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, talked about. I look forward to the Minister’s response.
Education: Pupils and Young People
Baroness Prashar Excerpts(14 years, 2 months ago)
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Baroness Prashar
My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Baroness, Lady Perry, for initiating this debate and for introducing it in the way that she did. I am pleased to see that the Minister is able to be with us despite the mishap. I look forward to his response because I had the pleasure of working with him when I was part of the National Literacy Trust.
There are hundreds of primary schools where the majority of children fail to get to an acceptable level in English and maths. These children leave primary schools without the knowledge and skills required to follow the secondary school curriculum and make a success of the rest of their time in education. Many of these children do not reach an acceptable level of literacy by the end of their time at primary school and their time at secondary level is often wasted. About one in five children leaving primary school does not get to level 4 in English.
The gap in attainment between the rich and the poor is shameful. For disadvantaged pupils, a gap opens even before primary school. Research shows that the highest early achievers from deprived backgrounds are overtaken by lower achieving children from advantaged backgrounds by the age of five. In 2008, National Literacy Trust research showed substantial differences in life chances, quality of life and civic and cultural participation between those with low literacy levels and those with higher levels of literacy competence. So, the direct link to social mobility and low aspirations is all too evident.
The Government’s move to make schools more autonomous by giving professionals greater autonomy, and to make the funding system fairer by providing extra money for young people from deprived backgrounds in order to ensure that children struggling with the basics get the extra help they need, is truly welcome. However, we know that there are other areas of school life that will not be covered by the pupil premium.
One of these areas is school library provision. Good school libraries contribute to excellent literacy outcomes for the schools in which they are based, but not all schools have a library. The number of schools with libraries has been falling in recent years. Research shows that only about 58 per cent of secondary schools have a library run by a professional librarian, and that libraries are often not fulfilling their potential.
In a difficult economic climate it is the support services such as these that run the risk of being reduced. Cuts will inevitably impact upon the poorest schools and those most disadvantaged. It is therefore important that we do not neglect the support services, such as school libraries, in the most deprived areas.
We all know that children's life chances are strongly affected by their parents’ circumstances. Researchers at the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy found that parents’ literacy level is a key indicator of their child’s literacy. That was backed by the Sutton Trust research this year that found that children’s exam results in England were more strongly linked to their parents’ education than in many other countries.
Against that background of high intergenerational transfer of poor skills, support also needs to be focused outside the school. Parents are a child’s first educators, and it is in all our interests to ensure that they have the necessary encouragement, support, confidence and knowledge to perform this crucial role. Families provide the foundations for early literacy development among very young children. Language—that is, speaking, listening, comprehension and vocabulary—is learnt through interaction with adults. Parents do this through conversation and encouraging imaginative play, and by reading stories. It is the parents who have the greatest role to play in helping their child to develop as a skilful communicator and a competent learner.
All parents wish to do their best for their children but often lack confidence or knowledge. Parents therefore need to be empowered to recognise the contribution that they can make and to be helped to make that contribution. Language is the key to learning. It is therefore important to increase awareness of the importance of these skills among parents if we are to ensure excellent education for all pupils and young people. If we want to tackle disadvantage and ensure excellent education for all, we need to develop professional practice, underpinned by appropriate professional development, that values the contribution of home and community literacy activity and knows how to make it work.
We need to have a clear responsibility for the development of a home and community literacy strategy and build on the work done by organisations such as the National Literacy Trust and others. We need greater incentives to encourage partnership working between schools, parents, community groups, and voluntary organisations, and we need to support and help all those working to create an environment and the social conditions in which learning can flourish and foster children’s language development. Is this not what the notion of a big society is about?
Bearing in mind how important literacy support outside schools is to the future of excellent education in this country, what steps are being taken to ensure that the Government, local authorities and schools are giving priority to family and community literacy and learning?