Universities: Funding

Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve Excerpts

Monday 7th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

The noble Lord will be aware that the previous Administration kicked this into the long grass, as previous Governments have often done, by establishing the Browne review—The Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance—which is well under way and due to report later this year. When we have that report, which deals with full-time and part-time funding—this Government pay a lot of attention to the importance of part-time students—we will consider those proposals and will respond.

[Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve]

My Lords, what steps will the Government take to ensure that the pattern of cuts imposed by different institutions in response to falling resources does not endanger strategically important subjects—for example, Arabic, other languages and even chemistry?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

That is a very complex question. I am conscious that discussions are under way in the British Academy on the teaching of unusual foreign languages, which is rather different from the future of chemistry and STEM subjects. We are conscious of the need to protect those specialist subjects, but, as I have emphasised, the interests of the top 10 universities in Britain and those providing very worthwhile foundation degrees are part of a highly diverse sector and we need to consider all those interests.