Post-18 Education and Funding Review

Lord Luce Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd July 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Luce (CB)]

My Lords, I will focus my remarks in particular on the accelerated degree mentioned in the Augar report, but first I welcome the fact that so many speeches in this debate have concentrated on the really important recommendations in the Augar report relating to those 50% or so post-education people who are not in university. Those recommendations will, I hope, provide the better skills that are needed in an increasingly technological age, and encourage better jobs, more social mobility and a growth in productivity—and, I hope, will achieve greater parity of esteem with universities. The proposal for lifelong learning allowances is particularly imaginative.

As far as the other 50% are concerned—those in university—I, like others, welcome the proposal to introduce maintenance grants for those in need, but I join the noble Lord, Lord Norton, in being concerned about the regressive effects of reducing fees to £7,500 per annum and including the extension of the payback from 30 to 40 years, which could lead to middle earners losing out while the better off may well benefit. The challenge is to protect and guarantee the unit of resource for each student, and to do this, as we have heard, would require the injection of an extra £1.8 billion by the Government. Judging by past experience and all the increasing bids being made in the present debate by the two potential Prime Ministers, I am not very confident that that can be achieved.

We have had very impressive speeches in this debate by noble Lords with wide experience of education, and I have learned from experience that it is much wiser in this House to speak on a subject that you know something about. Therefore, I am limiting my remarks to the accelerated degree mentioned in the Augar report—better known in my mind as the two-year degree—which needs to be part of the pattern of choice that the Augar report so strongly recommends. I declare an interest as a former vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, so dynamically led today by Sir Anthony Seldon. The University of Buckingham, as everyone knows, has pioneered over 43 years the two-year degree.

I welcome the overall aim of the report, which is for more flexible learning opportunities, more diversity and more choice. The two-year degree fits into this pattern. I am glad that the Government have declared their aim to encourage the two-year degree. But we must ask ourselves why only 0.2% of all students—about 4,500—study the two-year degree today. The impact assessment for accelerated degrees produced by the Government forecasts growth in the next decade in two-year degree students of between 23,000 and 40,000 students. But to succeed in this requires two things. First, there must be more awareness of the value and availability of the two-year degree. Secondly, we must get the incentive right through the fees structure.

On awareness, on 28 February, the Minister, the noble Viscount, Lord Younger, helpfully circulated a letter following the debate on the regulation of accelerated degrees that revealed a remarkable lack of awareness and knowledge of the two-year degree. The Student Loans Company customer survey of 2018 showed that 92% were glad that they had chosen a two-year degree rather than the standard one, but 55% of the standard degree students had never heard of the accelerated degree, of whom 60% said that they would consider an accelerated degree if they were starting again as a fresh student. That demonstrates the need for there to be a major effort by the Government and universities to increase awareness, knowledge and understanding of what is involved in a two-year degree—the Minister referred to the term “more informed choice”.

To be clear, at the University of Buckingham, students save one year of living costs and tuition fees and are released one year earlier for a job or to carry on with further education. Over two years, with four terms a year, there are 80 weeks of studying and 24 weeks of holiday. In a three-year degree, there are the same number of weeks of study but 18 months of holiday, achieving the same standard of degree. It is not therefore surprising that the University of Buckingham has come top of the national student survey for student satisfaction and top in the teaching excellence framework, and that employers are deeply impressed by the motivation, judging by the jobs that the students get. It clearly suits certain types of students—not all, but certainly mature students and many who are highly motivated at a younger age.

Secondly, we should get the incentives right to encourage more two-year degrees. The fees for them are now at £11,100 per annum for approved fee-capped providers. Students will pay 20% less in fees over two years than in three, but universities will have to provide 50% more teaching for an income that is 20% less than for three years. The University of Buckingham judges that it needs to charge £12,500 per student in order to achieve high standards, but that means that it is an approved provider and loses some of the other advantages of fee-capped providers. In these circumstances, for-profit and other universities may be tempted to go for cheaper courses, for example in business, law or accountancy, rather than engineering, science or medicine. This could undermine the reputation of the two-year degree.

So I hope that the Government will examine the possible implications of the Augar proposals for reducing fees by £2,500 and look at the options for the two-year degree so that there is no disincentive to people going into those courses. The Government will need either to reduce the two-year degree fees proportionately, from £11,100 to £8,900, or to simply freeze the fees for two-year degrees at the present level, whereas the three-year degree fee will be reduced to £7,500. I simply ask the Minister that the Government give careful consideration to the options here, so that assurances can be given that the priority is to incentivise and encourage the two-year degree through a fee structure as well as by other means.