Post-18 Education and Funding Review

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd July 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I too thank the Minister for initiating this debate on the long-awaited Augar review. We owe a debt of gratitude to Philip Augar and his team for such a comprehensive review, and like the noble Lord, Lord Patten, I welcome the fact that it is clear and very well written. Like my noble friend Lord Storey, I thank too all those who sent briefings for this debate—far too many to credit, and many of them came yesterday, which is a little late for many of us who try to plan our speeches slightly ahead of time. We have had some wonderfully insightful and informed contributions from all around the Chamber this evening.

Dr Augar was speaking to the All-Party Parliamentary University Group last week, and he expressed his disquiet that all the attention has been on the university proposals, particularly the proposed reduction in student fees, whereas, as the noble Baroness, Lady Wolf, made clear, the reviewers were more concerned that we should look at these proposals in the round, and more concerned to publicise further and part-time education, and adult learning. But ’twas ever thus. Further education and vocational qualifications have always been treated as the poor relations, when in fact they are the bedrock of the country’s economic prosperity and quality of life, and it is really good to know that they served so well the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell.

I repeat my concern that vocational qualifications have been renamed “technical” qualifications. So many work-based skills are craft, not technical, yet this new terminology suggests that craft is not important. At meetings of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Craft, we have heard from inspirational people who make watches, hand-crafted paper or embroidery, and from expert stitchers who work closely with surgeons to share skills which can be beautiful and save lives.

I am a vice-president of City and Guilds, and have long been totally convinced of the value of practical skills, which are sadly undervalued. We heard from the noble Lord, Lord Layard, about his part in the Robbins review in 1963—the last time that any report from a Government addressed part-time study. The Open University, Birkbeck and other proponents of part-time study warmly welcome the attention, and, broadly, the proposals in this report. I declare an interest as a fellow of Birkbeck.

The report recognises the role that further education colleges must have in aligning the skills system with the needs of the economy—particularly at levels 2, 3 and 4—and in delivering high-quality alternatives to traditional three-year residential bachelor’s degrees, as well as enabling more adults to progress to intermediate skill levels. It understands that employers and communities need more high-quality technical and professional education and training, industry-standard facilities, expert staff and the unique curriculum that colleges already provide. Colleges are the key vehicle for the flexible, local delivery of national strategies, supporting industrial policy, productivity, skills development and genuine social equity. It clearly acknowledges that all this requires real investment. We need more investment to answer the calls from business and in direct response to the pending challenges of technological change and Brexit.

In the realm of post-18 education, FE has been the prime victim of financial cuts, policy churn and the insistence on market solutions. As other noble Lords have said, it is illogical, damaging and unfair that over the last 10 years colleges have had to deal with an average funding cut of 30% while costs have increased dramatically. Further education is the only part of the education budget to have had year-on-year cuts since 2010. The value of staff pay has fallen by over 25% since 2009 and staff turnover rates in colleges averaged 17% in 2017, with the hardest-to-fill posts still being teaching jobs in engineering, construction and mathematics.

One in 20 college students study a higher education course in a college. This is nothing new. Colleges have been running higher education courses since the 1920s. Some 218 colleges provide undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and they provide 86% of technical foundation degrees.

We have long expressed serious concerns about adult and lifelong learning. Funding for adult education has had a cut of 62%. In the last 10 years, we have seen total enrolments for adults drop from 5.1 million to 1.9 million. The Open University has seen dramatic decline, as has Birkbeck—both great institutions, which have given people second chances at education, have changed lives and made major contributions to quality of life and to the economy. We need adult skills to make up for the inevitable shortfall from young learners as their numbers decrease.

There is a compelling need for a fairer society which works for everyone, based on a strong economy in which businesses can be even more productive. We certainly support the Augar recommendation for a national adult education network, building on the existing FE college network. While this call for revenue and capital funding is welcome and long overdue, we would also recommend investment in adult learning facilities in the wider community. These may be more accessible for adult learners who respond to more informal settings than an FE college.

We are concerned at the emphasis in the report on courses and qualifications which are “economically valuable”. There is a risk that this may narrow the curriculum, particularly at the expense of arts and humanities. At entry level and for non-accredited courses in adult education, arts and humanities courses can be an accessible starting point for learners, and indeed continue to have value at all levels. When national vocational qualifications were introduced, the much-maligned level 1 often opened the gates for those with few or no qualifications and gave them a taste and a confidence for learning. Learning to learn is important among disenfranchised non-learners.

We support the lifelong learning loan allowance, but we acknowledge that adult learners may be averse to loans. I entirely agree with the right reverend Prelate that nurses may very well be averse to taking out loans. Like the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, we were sorry to see the demise of the individual learning account. In this space, we would prefer the personal education and skills accounts proposed by Sir Vince Cable’s lifelong learning commission with contributions, which can be used at appropriate times for learning.

We welcome the abolition of certain restrictions concerning the equivalence and intensity of courses. The equivalent or lower-level qualification rule has had damaging effects on people’s learning. Could the Minister say what exactly the lifetime learning allowance actually means, especially in relation to the ELQ rules? Further clarity on that would be helpful. Giving the student more flexibility by allowing funding to be used for one module at a time, without having to sign up for a full qualification, is welcome. This was the practice with NVQs, where units could be acquired which could eventually lead to a full qualification. When I worked for City and Guilds, we contested the change in funding as we could see the real value in unit accreditation, but funding was available for full qualifications only.

Between them, universities are spending over £1 billion a year on measures to improve the access of disadvantaged students to higher education, but there is a need to clarify the statistical basis on which disadvantaged students are identified. Like other noble Lords, I strongly support maintenance grants. We continue to express disquiet over the metrics of the teaching excellence and student outcomes framework. The Royal Statistical Society has decreed these to be profoundly unreliable. We look forward to Dame Shirley Pearce’s review. Can the Minister say when we might expect this? I think the answer may be “shortly”.

The National Student Survey continues to register high levels of satisfaction overall with the courses that students are getting, which should be reassuring. Like the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, I note that education in many areas is devolved to the four countries of the UK. What are the implications of Augar for the four countries of the UK? The only university to cover all of the UK is the Open University, which is obviously watching the outcome of this review with interest.

If the reduced tuition fee is introduced, what reassurances can the Minister give that expensive courses—in science, engineering, technology and medicine, as well as many of our wonderful creative arts—will not be targeted? Another concern which I expressed to him last week is that minority subjects might disappear, in particular some of the minority languages where retaining proficiency is significant for international relations as well as security. Universities see real threats to the humanities and social sciences from these proposals.

I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Bichard, that graduate salaries do not reflect the value of their studies, and with the noble Lord, Lord Judd, about the quality of life. One university has expressed to me that, with Brexit and Augar, life would be very tough and that trying to maintain the extraordinarily high record of our universities would be extremely challenging.

On the repayments, we see the changes as discriminating against disadvantaged graduates—especially women, who these days still tend to have disrupted careers. Like the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, I query why the interest rate is still at a swingeing RPI plus 3%. Will this be reviewed?

As a last question, the 2018 CBI/Pearson education and skills survey found that 60% of employers rate skills such as resilience, communication and problem solving among their top priorities. Does the Minister agree it is therefore vital that courses across all disciplines, including arts and languages, are properly funded to provide these skills, which workforce employers need?

Once again, I give our thanks to the Augar panel. This review should give a real incentive to those in further education and colleges—a boost to be in their rightful place thanks to the massive contributions they make to the country, the community and individuals. While we still have some concerns, and look forward to those being addressed, I look forward too to the Minister’s reply and the Government’s response. We shall watch with interest the actions which should be taken as a result of this welcome review.