Post-18 Education and Funding Review Debate

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Baroness Blackstone

Main Page: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)

Post-18 Education and Funding Review

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts
Tuesday 2nd July 2019

(4 years, 8 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Blackstone Portrait Baroness Blackstone (Ind Lab)
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My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Storey, I intend to focus my remarks on the Augar review’s recommendations on further education, always a neglected area of public debate, not least in this House. Before doing so, I want to pick up on one aspect of the review concerning universities.

Unlike some commentators in the HE sector, I greatly welcome the recommendation to reduce tuition fees for undergraduates to a maximum of £7,500. The coalition Government’s decision to treble fees at one go was a mistake and unlikely to be sustainable, as we are now seeing. I can think of no other example where the price of a public service to the user, in this case graduates, has been increased by so much at once. There are several unfortunate outcomes, including the need for huge write-offs of unpaid loans, leaving a large problem for the public finances in the longer term, and the disastrous decline in part-time and mature undergraduates.

I welcome the recommendation to return to government grants to make up for the loss of fee income but regret that it is focused on STEM subjects. We must stop perpetuating the myth that science and engineering courses hugely outweigh others in their usefulness and value to the economy and society. For example, courses that prepare people for jobs in the creative industries, financial services, business or public sector management, as well as in education or social work, are as important. Can the Minister say categorically whether all undergraduate courses will have their funding made up by grant if fees are reduced to £7,500?

I now turn to further education. The Augar committee must be congratulated on taking up the cudgels on behalf of the colleges and the intermediate-level vocational and technical courses that they provide. It has been a feature of Conservative Governments to neglect FEs. When Labour took over in 1997, there were many failures in education that needed addressing after 18 years of Tory rule, but there were few greater than in further education. Close to a third of FE colleges were running deficits—in some cases, very large ones—and capital grants were far below what was required. The way they were managed needed attention, as did the training of their teaching staff. The Government addressed these issues, along with providing a 12% per annum increase in their funding.

When the Conservatives came back into power in 2010, once again FE went to the bottom of the pile. Whereas universities have been relatively unaffected by the austerity programme, FE has sustained huge cuts, which continued until very recently. I have often puzzled over Conservative Ministers’ long-standing reluctance to support the FE sector. Why do they not get it? Is it that they just do not know people involved in FE, either as staff or as students? Neither they nor their children normally go to these colleges. Nor is FE given much coverage in the media; it is always about universities or schools.

This debate has been initiated by the Government and I am grateful to them for that. I know that they are trying to fill in time here, as we have little to do with virtually no legislation of any significance while the ghastly saga of Brexit continues. However, I assume that they would not have initiated this debate unless they were prepared to give some indication of their intentions on Augar’s recommendations. Therefore, in commenting on some of them, I will ask whether they agree with them and, if so, what they will do. I would be grateful for a reply that does not just hide behind bland references to considering them in the spending review.

First, do the Government agree with the fundamental contention that it is now time to rebalance spending priorities towards the 50% of the population who do not go to university? Secondly, do they also agree that it is necessary, as Augar rightly states, to address the disparity between those who go to university and those who do not, in the interests of fairness and social justice but also to bring about considerable economic benefits? I am not sure that really came out in the Minister’s opening remarks. Thirdly, I know that the Government are aware of the need to improve skill levels if their industrial policy is to be implemented, but do they accept, as the Augar report argued, that far more needs to be done to expand the numbers with technical and vocational qualifications, in particular through much greater enrolment in courses at levels 4 and 5? The numbers have been falling, so what funding structures and incentives will the Government introduce to reverse this? Fourthly, will they ensure, as the Economic Affairs Select Committee recommended in its recent report, that any changes, especially at this level but at others too, will be flexible, allowing students choice over how long they take to build their skills through acquiring a qualification?

Many universities have invested in substantial capital programmes; in contrast, hardly any FE colleges have been able to do this. Augar estimates that around £1 billion is needed and sensibly advocates doing it on a strategic national basis in line with industrial strategy priorities. Without this funding, the FE sector will be unable to meet the standards required to deliver technical qualifications, nor will the quality of its provision match that of our nearest neighbours in Europe. Instead, its estate will remain in poor condition and high-cost courses will not be provided.

Funding also needs to be restored, as Augar advocated, for level 2 and 3 qualifications. Although more young people now attain qualifications at this level, many still fail to do so. This means that they must catch up later. If this is to happen, we have to restore adults’ entitlement to free tuition for level 2 and 3 qualifications, with flexible routes to attaining them. Do the Government accept this?

Do they also agree that FE colleges are the best way to deliver locally based, permanent and reliable institutions, which, while having some overlap with schools and universities, recognisably provide different education and training from either? Their branding, status and public profile need improvement. This requires initiative on their own part but, above all, requires the Government to stand up for them, resource them and help drive up their standards.

As Augar states:

“Funding rules are complex and inflexible. They impose short time horizons and do not allow FE colleges to respond to local labour market needs”.


The Government must rectify this, as well as increasing the core funding rate for adult education courses and for 18 year-olds, which has unaccountably been reduced.

I conclude by admitting that the FE sector has not been uniformly successful in providing high-quality courses with high completion rates. Greater investment in every teaching staff member’s training is needed. As the noble Lord, Lord Storey, rightly said, their value also needs to be recognised through higher pay, since their pay has fallen considerably below that of secondary schoolteachers. This cannot be right. Employers need to be engaged constructively in the work of the colleges, helping to enrich their courses. This is incredibly important.

I end with a plea to the Government: please mend your ways and put the FE sector at the centre of the education system. Do not let it languish on the sidelines any longer. Do this as a matter of urgency.