Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charlie Elphicke

Thursday 8th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

Let us be absolutely clear about what our reforms will do. They will save money for the Exchequer, but at the same time they will ensure that universities have, if anything, an increase in the cash they receive for teaching, and graduates will repay only when they are earning more than £21,000 a year. That is a fair deal for all the partners in the higher education system.

[Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

Is not it the case that costs would be lower if the cost of courses was lower, particularly for the Open university, which was not always supported by the previous Government as fully as it should have been, and for further education that is skills-based? I thank Ministers, in particular, for their recent intervention in Kent college to secure skills-based education in Kent.

[Mr Willetts]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There is, of course, a range of options for access to higher education, and the Open university is an important part of them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charlie Elphicke

Thursday 27th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

16. If he will consider changing the MPharm qualification from level 6 to level 7.

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

The Government do not determine the academic levels of higher education qualifications. The Higher Education Funding Council funds the MPharm as an undergraduate master's degree, to the benefit of 10,000 students a year who are entitled to teaching grants and student support.

[Charlie Elphicke]

I thank the Minister for that answer. My constituent Louis Leir has done an undergraduate degree and wants to do a MPharm, but unfortunately it is classified as an undergraduate-level degree. He is therefore caught by the equivalent or lower qualifications —ELQ—policy and is unable to get help with tuition fees. Will Ministers give further considerations to the issues relating to master's level qualifications? The MPharm truly is one of those, as most of the House probably recognises.

[Mr Willetts]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his ingenuity in pursuing that constituency case, about which we have corresponded. Just as he was with the Pfizer case at Sandwich, he is a persistent hon. Member and I congratulate him on that. However, we believe that if we were to take the ingenious approach he proposes, it might mean that the 10,000 undergraduates currently benefiting from financial support lose it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Charlie Elphicke

Thursday 8th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

I have here the forecast from the OBR, and it is an endorsement of the measures that the Government took in the Budget. It makes it absolutely clear that it expects total employment in the economy to rise from 28.89 million now to 30.23 million in five years’ time, as a result of the decisions that the Government are taking. Of course, times are tough for students, but going to university and getting a degree remains a very good investment in people’s long-term prospects for well-paid employment, and we will encourage universities to focus on maximising the employability prospects of their students.

[Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

10. How many further education colleges will receive capital funding from his Department in 2010-11.