Higher Education: Funding and Student Finance

Lord Elystan-Morgan Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

You empower a student by allowing him or her to go through the whole of their university time without fear or worry for money. Only after they have started to earn more than £21,000 a year will they even start to pay back anything.

In fairness, we are looking at a very different way of thinking. The money will be returned as the people earn a great deal more. As we all know, anybody who has been to university will earn a lot more during their working life than if they had not. Very often, the money that has enabled students to go to and enjoy university has come from people doing jobs that do not pay a great deal, but those people are paying tax that feeds through to students. I refer to people who work in any one of a million jobs but who have not benefited from a university education. The money comes back eventually—slowly—through the system, and the next set of students go to university. It is important to look at this in the round.

[Lord Elystan-Morgan]

In relation to the capping of tuition fees, have Her Majesty's Government conducted any study of the possible and likely deleterious and injurious effect that this would have on higher education in Wales? If so, what conclusions were arrived at and what discussions were conducted with the Welsh Assembly and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales?

[Baroness Wilcox]

I am afraid that I do not know. The devolved assemblies will carry on doing things in the way that they wish, and we will consult them. However, today I am speaking for universities in England. Of course, as time goes on and we go forward, we will debate and consult with all the devolved assemblies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to see how we can best work together and learn from best practice.