Higher Education: Reform

Lord Bishop of Ripon and Leeds Excerpts

Monday 12th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Ripon and Leeds]

My Lords, I, too, am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Wills, for initiating this debate and keeping before us the issue of how best to encourage that depth of understanding that is key to the humanities. Many Members of your Lordships’ House will have been involved yesterday in Remembrance Sunday events, which will—or should—have posed the question of how we live peaceably and with dignity in a world of diversity. That needs a deep sense in our society of subjects such as history, philosophy, sociology and indeed theological and religious studies. What will the Government do to encourage studies to maintain and develop that understanding of a world of diversity that has been at the heart of the development of a liberal society?

We cannot simply assume that liberal values will continue to be accepted in our society. Your Lordships have spent the last five hours or so debating ethical issues around sexual abuse, financial integrity and journalistic honesty—all marks of how a liberal society is to live with the illiberal and the selfish. That all needs an understanding of society which is heavily dependent on the culture encouraged in HE. One example: Islamic studies used to be viewed as a strategically important and vulnerable subject. Now that category seems to be reserved for subjects deemed to be economically important. Will the Government renew this category and understanding with a view to including humanities subjects which, as their name suggests, deal with relationships between human beings?

A crucial aim of HE must be to encourage the development of all students as responsible, ethical human beings. There needs to be a stress on values which are not dominated by market forces. The HE sector, including the Church of England cathedral group of universities, has always endeavoured to develop this. Will the Minister affirm that understanding of the development of all students as responsible, ethical human beings? Will she pledge the Government’s support for those aims, for both undergraduate and research programmes?