Higher Education: EUC Report

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Excerpts

Thursday 11th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Hornsey, for introducing the last report of the committee which she chaired, The Modernisation of Higher Education in Europe, and all noble Lords for their contribution to what has been a very informative and sometimes spirited debate.

There is not time to reflect on every contribution made today, though there was something of interest and value in each one. I think that we are all in debt to my noble friend Lord Giddens, whose sadly truncated speech dealt with the context for our debate, of a Europe in crisis, and drew attention to the impact that this may have. I shall pick up three main points which I hope will be noted by the Minister when she comes to respond in what I think is her first appearance as a spokesperson for BIS. We welcome her to her new role and I am sure that we are all grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, for her contributions to our education debates over the year.

We have too few opportunities to debate higher education in your Lordships’ House—the wide range of comments that we have received in this debate prove that—and I, too, will raise issues both from the report and on general HE policy. Much of the report implies at least a partnership between the UK Government and our HE institutions across the Bologna process, Horizon 2002 strategy, EIT, ERA, KICs and, of course, the Erasmus programme. Several noble Lords referred to the benefits that can flow if these multilateral programmes are delivered, but it was not clear from the government response how, if funds are tight, they will be supported. With HEFCE being refocused and no direct teaching grants being provided, how will the UK Government deliver on their commitments?

Several noble Lords mentioned the poor level of participation of UK students in the Erasmus programme but also drew attention to the work of the Riordan group. Student mobility clearly suffers from poor language skills acquisition at school and at university and may also be impacted by debt aversion to the new student finance system. It also needs more direct funding. Will this be available? Can we be assured that extra support will continue to be available for disabled and disadvantaged students?

My noble friend Lady Blackstone and others raised the question of how postgraduate education is to be supported more generally. A loan system will surely not be attractive to those undergraduates who leave university with accrued loans of perhaps £50,000. What are the Government going to do in this area? We are still not very clear about this.

Listening to the debate today and reflecting on how the EU intends to modernise higher education leads us to call into question what this Government are doing to our higher education system, which, until recently at least, was regarded as one of the best in the world. Can current plans really be called modernisation? According to UCAS, there are 54,200 fewer students starting this term than there were this time last year. The evidence is clear: the trebling of tuition fees is hitting the life chances of thousands of potential students across the country, holding back their access to opportunities and at the same time damaging the UK’s economic potential, which must surely be seen to rely on a supply of highly qualified graduates to enable us to compete with new competition from emerging markets.

Other countries see the importance of higher education and are investing in it. This Government are out of touch and doing the opposite. Cutting 25,000 student places at universities this year is hardly investing in our young people or contributing to growth. Times Higher Education has estimated that the fall in student numbers will mean a loss of income to universities of around £1.3 billion over the next three years. That is the equivalent of shutting down a huge university such as the University of Manchester, together with a smaller one such as the University of Keele, or shutting two mid-sized institutions like Cambridge and Hertfordshire. It is not just that this piles yet more financial pressure on universities, already under significant strain as a result of the Government’s 80% cut to the teaching grant; complex student number control mechanisms are compounding these problems, creating further uncertainty where places at popular universities which could have easily taken them have been taken out and auctioned off to those who bid for them on price not quality.

The impact is being felt in regional economies, already suffering from a recession made in Downing Street, with fewer students studying, eating, shopping and renting in towns and cities across the UK. The University of Southampton estimates that the changes that it has experienced have generated a £16.5 million loss in income to the city. What is going to happen to our current,

“enviable track record of attracting bright overseas students to come and study in the UK”,

who, according to the chairman of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee whose recent report has already been mentioned today,

“contribute significantly to our economy as well as to our reputation as a world-class place to do business”?

We seem to have yet another omnishambles, with what seems to be open warfare between BIS and the Home Office. Can the Minister shed light on who is winning the argument? The Immigration Minister, Mark Harper, said recently that:

“The government does not consider it appropriate to deviate from the internationally agreed definition of a migrant”.

However, in what was widely described as a damage limitation exercise, David Willetts said that the Government want,

“to publicise disaggregated figures”—

on net migration—

“so that the debate can be better informed”.

In other words, the ONS will now publish two series of net migration figures, one including students and one excluding them. Whatever happens, this has been a very sorry episode that will do lasting damage to our HE system and our economy as well as impact on the sort of soft-power issues raised by the noble Lord, Lord Hannay. Mr Willetts is on record as saying that:

“There are few sectors of our economy with the capacity to grow and generate export earnings as great as higher education”,

and that,

“education exports are already worth around £14 billion, and could rise to around £20 billion in 2020 and nearly £27 billion in 2025, representing an annual growth rate of approximately 5 per cent”.

They will certainly not if the Government do not sort out this unseemly mess in very short order.

The Government in their White Paper—and we are still waiting for the promised Bill—said that they wanted a revolution in higher education and to place,

“students at the heart of the system”.

However, in reality a combination of high fees and broken and discredited number-control policies have hampered universities’ best efforts to fill their books with students ready for the transformational effects of a higher education system that was once the envy of the world.

Our universities are hurting as a result of the Government’s policies, and students will be personally paying for generations to come. They will be paying more and for longer than ever before. In fact most students will be paying back the higher fees most of their working lives. What a way to modernise higher education.