Margaret Hodge
Higher Education
The Minister of State for Lifelong Learning (Margaret Hodge ): First, I congratulate the Chairman and all members of the Committee. The two reports and the debate that we have had today demonstrate the best of Select Committee processes. It has been an informed debate if, perhaps, a little vigorous. Nevertheless, it has given us an opportunity to debate something that is of key importance to the Government and to all of us who represent the members of our community.
I agree with what the Chairman said about the importance of university in our lives, not only for economic reasons, but also for the purposes of social inclusion. That is at the heart of the Government's commitment to widening participation. We wish to widen participation and we shall maintain quality. I am incredibly fed up with the constant attacks on the grounds that widening participation will reduce quality. It will not, and we shall ensure, through all our quality assurance mechanisms, that quality is maintained. It is crucial, for economic and social reasons, to widen opportunity. Part of the productivity problem in this country is due to the skills gap. America has a much higher participation rate in university than we do in the United Kingdom—although it does also have a much higher drop-out rate. Of the new jobs that will be created in the next decade, 1.7 million, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, West (Valerie Davey) said, will require the sort of skills that can be acquired only through higher education.
I should like to respond to some of the issues that have been raised, rather than make a statement of Government policy. A number of people have spoken about prior attainment levels. Those have been mentioned in every debate in recent weeks as being crucial to extending participation in higher education. My hon. Friends the Members for Bury, North (Mr. Chaytor), for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman) and for Stoke-on-Trent, North (Ms Walley) talked about educational maintenance allowances. They are successful and are increasing participation by 5 per cent. We must now consider, in the context of the comprehensive spending review, whether they are the best-targeted way of achieving that 5 per cent. increase. They are the most effective instrument that we have found to increase participation.
Equally important is our agenda for those aged 14 to 19. That includes our approach to vocational qualifications, which a number of speakers mentioned, the Connexions service, which was alluded to, and the excellence challenge programme.
The hon. Members for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien), and for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) and my hon. Friends the Members for Bury, North, for Huddersfield, and for Blackpool, South (Mr. Marsden)—with apologies if I have left anyone out—talked about the importance of funding the universities. I agree with them. We have to discuss the balance between our investment in the university infrastructure and that in student funding.
We have not done badly with an 18 per cent., £1.7 billion increase in spending and investment in higher education. I would say to the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Paul Holmes) that this year, for the first time in a decade, we have increased the unit of resourcing, and therefore reversed the year by year decline that happened under the previous Government.
We have also put an additional £300 million into teaching over the three-year period. That is very important in order to address a number of the issues that have been mentioned. I agree with the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell that it is underfunded, but I hope that he will accept that that is due to the underfunding by the previous Government. We got expansion at the expense of funding, but that was no way to go forward.
I am delighted that so many hon. Members have welcomed the excellence fellowship awards that were announced yesterday. They represent a mechanism through which we can build links between schools and universities. There are sufficient jobs; we should not worry, as the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell has suggested, that the increased number of people who go through higher education will not have opportunities to work.
I can reassure the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) that we are ensuring that the qualifications offered in our higher education sector are relevant to the world of work. The foundation degrees, which we launched this year, have been extremely well received, with 85 per cent. take-up of places in the first cohort that we have examined. They were designed by business in collaboration with the higher education institutions to meet the needs of the business community. Much of what we offer may not be at degree level, but at sub-degree level, and take the form of HNDs and HNCs. I hope that all hon. Members will welcome that.
Several hon. Members expressed concerns about retention, with which we shall need to deal more as we go along. As we extend participation, the cohort of students will change. It will become all-important to deal with retention and to ensure that people do the right courses, are properly supported and have the skills to develop. However, we have the best record on graduation and the second-best record on retention among OECD countries.
Mr. Gordon Marsden : Will my hon. Friend give way?
Margaret Hodge : No, I shall carry on because I have only five minutes left.
I want to talk a little about social class and access. We acknowledge that higher education expanded under the previous Conservative Government, but I hope that the Opposition will acknowledge that they did not manage to break the inability of people from lower socio-economic groups to access higher education. That is the much tougher challenge that we face and want to takeup.
On Oxbridge, I hope that all hon. Members will accept that there is an issue. Some 52 per cent. of Oxbridge entrants have three A passes at A-level, but the figure for entrants with three A passes at A-level across the university sector is 65 per cent. There is a disparity, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer properly raised the issue. We want to ensure that more people from state schools have access to universities. The issue is perhaps partly about whether they apply. The aspiration funding that we have put in place will tackle that, but we need to deal with a range of issues to ensure equality of access to some of our best institutions, and the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Dr. Harris) is naive if he thinks otherwise.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bury, North talked about the UCAS tariff scheme. We are doing a lot of work on that, and I shall write to him and to my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, South about what we are doing to ensure that universities consider the issue seriously.
The hon. Member for Chesterfield and my hon. Friends the Members for Bristol, West and for Blackpool, South mentioned disability. Some hon. Members will know that I was previously Minister for Disabled People, and I like to think that the Government moved the agenda forward with allowances for part-time disabled students and postgraduates and through legislation. I will be happy for the hon. Member for Chesterfield to write to me about where he thinks the gap in the legislation is.
Higher and further education is vital, and there are 150,000 HE students in FE. It is crucial that we create strategic partnerships between the FE and HE sectors and tackle the funding of the FE sector.
The hon. Member for Eddisbury mentioned the portability issue, and I have a lot of sympathy in that regard. We are currently considering the matter. He also mentioned the year out, about which Nick St Aubyn, with whom I worked on the issue, was concerned when he was a Member of Parliament. Again, I like to think that we have made progress. Students have spent time outside the UK under the Erasmus and Socrates programmes, and that has made an important contribution to their higher education.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bury, North mentioned the postcode premium, which is important. We are considering it again to see whether we can focus it better to ensure that young people from under-represented groups come into higher education.
I have not mentioned student funding because we talked about it last time. [Interruption.] Time does not permit. We are undertaking a review about balancing the contributions of students, parents and the state. The Liberal Democrats have nothing to bring to the debate and are incredibly naive. The review is about phasing the payment. We will consult all the groups that the hon. Member for North-East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) mentioned, and we will put an animal on the table. Any sensible consultation must take place in that way. We are responding to evidence as it emerges.
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