Higher Education Funding
Debate between Alex Burghart and Lord Johnson of Marylebone(7 years, 1 month ago)
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Joseph Johnson
I say to the hon. Lady what I should also have said to my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest West (Sir Desmond Swayne): this should best be seen as a graduate contribution, rather than a debt pile. Graduates do not have to repay until they are earning over £25,000, which is a world away from the world of commercial debts, and their debts are written off after 30 years. No commercial loan offers such terms. This is a time-limited and income-linked graduate contribution. We should start to move away from this conception of it as a debt and loan.
Alex Burghart (Brentwood and Ongar) (Con)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for reminding the House that we now have record numbers of disadvantaged pupils going to university.
Alex Burghart
Is it not unacceptable that the shadow Education Secretary went on Question Time the other night and claimed the opposite?
Joseph Johnson
I agree with my hon. Friend, and I find it alarming that the hon. Member for Blackpool South (Gordon Marsden) is chuntering away saying, “It’s not true.” It is true. The proportion of people from disadvantage backgrounds now going to university has increased. It is undeniably true. It is in the statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the Office for Fair Access. The number is 43% higher than it was in 2009-10. A young person is 52% more likely to go to a highly selective university than they were in 2009-10. It is extraordinary that the hon. Gentleman wants to deny it.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Alex Burghart and Lord Johnson of Marylebone(7 years, 2 months ago)
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Alex Burghart (Brentwood and Ongar) (Con)
10. What steps the Government are taking to make university education more accessible to young people from poorer backgrounds.
The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Joseph Johnson)
Our student finance system is enabling record numbers of disadvantaged young people to benefit from higher education. This year, 18-year-olds from the most disadvantaged areas in England were 43% more likely to go into higher education than in 2009-10, and, in addition, through the latest round of access agreements for 2018-19, universities have committed no less than £860 million to continue improving access and success for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Alex Burghart
I warmly welcome the fact that there are more poorer children going to university than ever before. Will the Minister join me in welcoming the initiative taken by University College, Oxford—now officially the greatest university in the world—which has reserved places every year for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, to ensure that more of them have access to world-class education?
Joseph Johnson
I certainly welcome that initiative by University College, Oxford, and I am pleased to say that it is not just that disadvantaged students are accessing higher education in general; they are 53% more likely now to be going to our super-selective institutions than in 2009-10, which is an extraordinary turnaround.