Education: Qualifications

Lord Bishop of Bristol Excerpts

Thursday 10th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

I do not have the precise figures but I will be happy to write to the noble Lord with them. I know of his interest in the subject; we have discussed this before. It is, as he knows, a relatively small number but I am glad to say that I think it is increasing slowly in the maintained sector as well as the independent sector. I will do my best to get up-to-date figures and write to the noble Lord with them.

[The Lord Bishop of Bristol]

My Lords, what work are the Government doing to monitor trends in the number of students who go on from A-levels or other pathways of learning to apply to university? In particular, what steps are they taking to monitor whether the changed funding arrangements are deterring numbers from lower socioeconomic groups from making such applications?

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

My Lords, we are developing destination measures, which should help us to get a better picture than we currently have of what happens to children after they leave school, whether they go into further or higher education or into jobs. It is important to know what the destinations are, so we are working on those measures, which will help us. As to monitoring the effect of some of the changes that we have had to make—for example, over the educational maintenance allowance, which was raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Quin—we will keep it under review to see what impact it has.