Educational Settings

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

The financial health of the university sector is obviously of key critical interest to us. We will be working closely with Universities UK to ensure the stability and strength of that important sector for not just learning but the economy. We urge universities who are going to face financial difficulties and pressures to start engaging in an early dialogue and be honest about some of the challenges that they are going to face financially. Otherwise, it is difficult to respond if something comes out of the blue.

The issue of international students is important. We have to be realistic and expect the number of international students who attend UK universities to be lower next year. How we work with the sector to replace that capacity in different ways is something that the Department is already working on. Certainly, we are already having those discussions with UUK.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

There are six big secondary schools in the borough of Kettering. Does the Secretary of State envisage that, to continue the education of children of key workers, those cohorts will be educated in the six separate schools, or that some arrangement will be made between the schools for them all to come together and teach the children in one place?

[Gavin Williamson]

In the initial instance, we hope that provision can be provided in the school that the child attends, but we recognise that, with the spread of the virus, that will not be realistic all the way through, so we will have to look at how we show flexibility. I have no doubt that, as in many towns and boroughs up and down the country, there is already a deep level of co-operation between schools in the local community in terms of sharing resources and learning. There are often good partnerships, but we will work with local education authorities, as well as regional schools commissioners, to help to facilitate that.