Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michelle Donelan and James Grundy

Monday 4th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[James Grundy (Leigh) (Con)]

14. What progress he has made on improving the quality of higher education courses.

[The Minister for Higher and Further Education (Michelle Donelan)]

For the first time, universities will be subject to stringent minimum thresholds for student outcomes on completion rates and graduate jobs. Boots-on-the-ground inspections have begun, and through our transparency drive to give students all the information that they need and a focus on participation and outcomes, we are driving out the pockets of poor quality in our world-leading higher education sector.

[James Grundy]

Would my right hon. Friend congratulate Leigh College in my constituency on becoming a campus of the Greater Manchester Institute of Technology, offering the opportunity to study degree-equivalent STEM—science, technology, engineering and maths—courses to local students and bringing £13 million in educational investment to the local borough?

[Michelle Donelan]

I know how hard my hon. Friend has campaigned for that investment. The Greater Manchester Institute of Technology, once open, will play a critical role in filling the local skills gaps in key sectors such as construction, digital and advanced manufacturing, as well as in getting local people high-paid local jobs.