Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charles Kennedy

Thursday 5th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

I do support that initiative and I hope it will be possible to visit my hon. Friend’s constituency, because I know how much she does to support the Malvern cluster, which will soon be rivalling the Cambridge cluster and tech city.

[Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)]

10. What assessment he has made of the potential opportunities for manufacturers in onshore construction of offshore wind turbines.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charles Kennedy

Thursday 8th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)]

Well, that eccentric report was produced by the highly respected Higher Education Policy Institute, and one of its arguments is based on the findings of the self-same Institute for Fiscal Studies, even though the Minister has just said that it underestimates the figure. The Government originally assumed 32% non-payment, but the IFS, as quoted in the report he dismisses as an eccentricity, cites 37%, and today he has said it will be up to 50%. That is where the £1 billion figure comes from. How will the Government explain that away?

[Mr Willetts]

Perhaps it would help my right hon. Friend if I explained that there are two different measures. The answer I gave the hon. Member for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin) was that we think about half of all borrowers will have some part of their loan written off. There is a separate calculation for the value of the loans that will be written off, which we estimate will be about 30%, so both figures are correct. Nothing can be completely certain in this life, and repayment essentially depends on future earnings, but what is certain is that starting to repay only when one is earning more than £21,000 is a jolly sight better than repaying when one is earning more than £15,000, which was the system left by the Labour party.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charles Kennedy

Thursday 24th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)]

11. When he last met representatives of the Russell group; and what matters were discussed.

[The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)]

I met vice-chancellors from the Russell group on 8 March at an event at Nottingham university. We discussed university access, research and international issues.

[Mr Kennedy]

I thank the Minister for that reply. On access, particularly for international students, he must be aware of how loudly alarm bells are now ringing in the Russell group and the tertiary education sector right across the UK because of the plummeting number of applications from international students as a result of the Home Office’s net migration targets. As this is worth nearly £8 billion a year to UK plc, can he not put pressure on his Home Office colleagues to see sense?

[Mr Willetts]

The latest evidence from UCAS shows that applications to British universities from outside the EU are going up, but it is absolutely right that we should back our very successful higher education sector. It is not a business, but it does have a lot of exports and the 400,000 students who come here from abroad to study can be regarded as an export success. That is why there is no limit on the number of genuine students who can come to the UK to study. There is no cap on their numbers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charles Kennedy

Thursday 13th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely wrong. It was made clear when the House debated the issue last month that more than half of all vice-chancellors support our proposals, because, given the tough decisions that we have had to take on public expenditure, we have provided them with an alternative source of income, coming not through a quango but through the choices of students, who can be confident that they will have to pay for their higher education only after they have graduated and are earning more than £21,000 a year.

[Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)]

I know that the Minister recognises the force of the point made by the Glasgow university principal, Anton Muscatelli, in his recent article in The Sunday Times, about the fact that the decisions in England will inevitably create a funding shortfall for Scottish universities. Will the Minister again undertake to stay closely in touch, on behalf of the UK Parliament, with the Scottish Parliament, which has reconvened the all-party technical working group to look at the matter ahead of the all-important May elections?

[Mr Willetts]

I have ministerial responsibility for the financing of universities in England only, but the right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, and we do keep in close contact with the devolved Administrations, because there are significant connections between decisions that we take in England and decisions that they take affecting Scotland and Wales.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charles Kennedy

Thursday 18th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

We are discussing the issue with language schools, and I met some of their representatives at the Department recently.

[Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)]

Will the Minister acknowledge that even before Lord Browne’s review, many universities—the university of Glasgow being a case in point—were finding that because of the purely artificial 50% figure that had been arrived at years ago, they were having to up their criteria for entry for, say, next autumn? Students who thought that they would be given a place are now finding that they are unlikely to be given one. How will the Government’s interpretation of Lord Browne’s recommendations deal with that fundamental problem?

[Mr Willetts]

While university places remain publicly funded, there has to be some sort of control. However, because of the proposals that we implemented in England this year, there were more places for British students in England. I hope that I am not being too chauvinistic when I say that, in the absence of similar policies in Scotland and Wales, the number of student places fell in both countries.

Higher Education Funding

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charles Kennedy

Wednesday 3rd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

I am not aware of the specific financing point that the right hon. Lady has in mind. I have to say that I had an interesting discussion with our drama schools and conservatoires and I felt I was able to persuade them that many of our ideas would give them the greater freedom they wished for.

[Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)]

The Minister of State and our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State both well appreciate the long-established reasons why I cannot go along with this particular direction of travel. It is to do not just with the last election but with the two previous general elections, during which I had the privilege to lead the Liberal Democrats. We made a lot of this policy area, as the Minister well knows.

That being said, may I come back to what the Secretary of State said to me in the House on these matters on 14 October? He referred to

“the growing funding crisis in Scottish universities”.—[Official Report, 14 October 2010; Vol. 516, c. 469.]

We all acknowledge that whatever one’s view of this policy in England, there is an immediate knock-on financial impact on the Scottish sector, particularly on those Scottish universities in the Russell group. As the Minister is coming to visit Glasgow—we are looking forward to welcoming him—will he confirm that it is of intense importance that Ministers in London keep the communication line open with Scotland to ensure that we do not skew the playing field intellectually within the United Kingdom?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charles Kennedy

Thursday 8th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)]

14. When he last met representatives of Universities UK; and what matters were discussed at that meeting.

[The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)]

I meet Universities UK on a regular basis. I last met UUK representatives at their board meeting on 25 June when we discussed a range of issues facing higher education. With my right hon. Friend being the rector of Glasgow university, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State having been an economics lecturer there, I am of course impressed by the excellence of that institution.

[Mr Kennedy]

Well, that is very nice to hear. I hope that the Minister will visit, and we will make him feel extremely welcome. A guest lecture would not go amiss.

Given the Government’s policy of a cap on immigration, the Minister will be aware that Universities UK and many others across the sector are worried about its impact, as 10% of university staff across the UK are non-EU nationals, including 2,500 staff at the Scottish universities alone. What can he do with his colleagues in the Home Office to mitigate the impact of that policy on the tertiary sector?