Student Finance

Baroness Wolf of Dulwich Excerpts

Wednesday 11th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

First, I recognise—as the House will recognise—that there is concern about student debt. We know that some students have accumulated a considerable amount of debt. This is part of the reason for the announcement today and the Written Statement on Monday, thereby raising the threshold from £21,000 to £25,000 and freezing the increase. These changes are designed to be helpful to students.

The noble Lord is absolutely right about creating parity of esteem between vocational and academic entry. This is part of the range of educational reforms that this Government have been making and which we wish to continue. I know that the noble Lord has been at the forefront in trumpeting these issues.

Linking to that, whatever may be decided in terms of student funding will—or may—come out towards the end of the year as part of the regular reviews going on.

[Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (CB)]

My Lords, I too welcome the Minister’s Statement. I should like to follow up on what the noble Lords, Lord Hunt and Lord Storey, have already said.

There are two major issues on which I would certainly welcome clarification. First, what we have at the moment is unquestionably a system which is building up a vast amount of unrepayable debt which will fall on the general taxpayer and is very regressive. I would welcome clarification as to whether both the quantity of debt and its impact—on the people who are ultimately paying for it—are going to be addressed in this somewhat ever-receding review.

The second issue is equally important. The Minister repeated that this Government intend that technical education should provide new and improved routes—something I strongly welcome. However, I draw the Minister’s and the House’s attention to the fact that the only current funding system for people who are doing not university degrees but more advanced degrees of a technical sort is—increasingly—something called advanced learner loans. This system is in total collapse. I do not know why but, basically, it seems impossible for the Government to lend the money, which must mean that people cannot access it, that they do not think it is going to work, or that the terms are totally unacceptable. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm whether or not this—and related aspects of the student finance system—will be covered fully and in depth in the review when it happens.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I thank the noble Baroness for her point. We are alert to a certain number of students who have accumulated debt but the changes today—raising the threshold to £25,000, and at the upper level from £41,000 to £45,000—should and will help students and will provide some relief. We firmly believe that the tuition fee system is working. It has certainly enabled more people from disadvantaged backgrounds to go to university, which I think everybody recognises, and that must be an extremely good thing.

The advanced learning points that the noble Baroness has raised may well be included in the comments that will come out towards the end of the year. I hasten to add that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, talked about a major review—yes, the Prime Minister did say that. The issue is that there is a constant review going on, so there will be some views coming out towards the end of the year. There will be no formation of a committee coming out of that review, however, just specific review comments.