Westminster Weekly: 29 February – 6 March 2008

1. Government announces reviews of the role of higher education

The Department for Innovation and Skills has set a 15-year deadline to equip the higher education system to compete against its competitors. In a speech at the Wellcome Trust on Friday 29 February, Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary John Denham invited the sector to debate its future and outlined the challenges it faces. This review of the future of HE in the UK will take place in isolation from next year's review of undergraduate variable fees.

The Secretary of State promised further announcements about the role of higher education in unlocking human and economic potential. The Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell will also launch a consultation on higher-level skills, including graduate skills, co-funded degrees and sponsorship.

The Secretary of State announced a series of reviews led by vice-chancellors to tackle the challenges UK higher education faces to remain internationally competitive in 15 years' time:

1. International dimension

Prof Drummond Bone, former president of Universities UK (UUK):

2. Relationship between academia and policy-makers and the RAE

Prof Janet Finch, vice-chancellor of Keele University and Council for Science and Technology:

3. Widening participation

Prof Steve Smith, vice-chancellor of Exeter University

4. Intellectual property

Prof Paul Wellings, vice-chancellor of Lancaster University

5. Student experience

Paul Ramsden, chief executive of the Higher Education Academy

6. Diversity

The Higher Education Funding Council for England

7. Student population trends

Universities UK

The Secretary of State also noted a number of “worries” about the current structure of higher education:

· Worries among employers that graduates lack personal and team-working skills.

· Worries about the start-up costs for an employer-led course.

· Worries about the ability of universities to make the necessary links between the development of innovative ideas and the teaching of skills in order to convert them into commercial successes - with a reluctance to take risks without firm guarantees.

· Worries about the lack of careers advice for students and their lack of opportunities to experience the world of work

· And worries about the cultural gap that can divide universities and businesses: notions of separate career paths, even the use of completely different language, so that neither side knows how to approach the other.

The Secretary of State said he had created a Minister for Students at DIUS as recognition that students are - and should be - an increasingly powerful force shaping our higher education system. He noted that the evidence from the student juries and new student forum has raised issues about the quality of teaching and employment prospects, accommodation, financial support, information, advice and guidance, and diversity.

2. Denham launches consultation on higher education provision

Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, John Denham launched a consultation on Monday 3 March on measures to extend higher education provision in local communities, including measures to open up opportunities for towns and cities to build new university campuses. The Government's 'New University Challenge', which aims to continue to build on achievements which have seen 17 new higher education centres opened since 2003, will look at widening participation and retaining talent in communities; driving economic regeneration; and stimulating entrepreneurship.

Mr Denham said: 'I want to build on the successes of the last few years which have seen new centres of higher education transforming local economies and the lives of local people. We must learn from these success stories and act on the growing evidence that locally based projects play a key role in helping local areas and people realise their potential. Communities should have the chance to show they can make the most of the power of higher education, to help unlock the talent of their local people and help make them better off.'

Responding to the Government's announcement of a "New University Challenge", which will set out plans for 20 more higher education centres, NUS President Gemma Tumelty said:

"NUS welcomes any move to widen participation in higher education. However, we need to be careful not to create a multi-tier system whereby young people from poorer backgrounds are funnelled into their local institution. The Government will have to ensure that these new campuses are given adequate support and funding, and also to ensure that this is a move towards social inclusion, rather than ghettoisation."

3. Home Secretary announces ‘voluntary’ ID cards for students

The Home Office set out plans to begin the introduction of national identity cards for foreign nationals in 2008, and for the first British citizens in 2009.

Within three years all foreign nationals applying to enter or remain in the UK will require an ID card. And from 2009 cards will be introduced for Britons working in sensitive roles or locations where identity will enhance public protection, beginning with people who work in airports.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith commented 'The Government's National Identity Scheme means that for the first time UK residents will have a single way to secure and verify their identity. We will be able to better protect ourselves and our families against identity fraud, as well as protecting our communities against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism. And it will help us to prove our identity in the course of our daily lives - when travelling, for example, or opening a bank account, applying for a new job, or accessing government services.'

The Home Secretary said: “Alongside these groups, we will start to make identity cards available to young people on a purely voluntary basis in 2010. It will be up to each young person to decide if they want one. I believe there are clear attractions in the scheme. It will make it easier to enrol on a course, apply for a student loan, open a bank account, or prove your age - especially as we get tougher on sales of alcohol to those under-age.”

NUS President Gemma Tumelty said:

“We are extremely concerned at the Government’s plan to use students as guinea pigs for their ID card scheme. They say that the card will be ‘voluntary’, but those students who decide not to have an ID card will encounter difficulties when applying for student loans and bank accounts. Student loans are an essential service, so we have to question just how ‘voluntary’ this system will be in practice. We would also be concerned for the safety of students’ personal information if they were coerced into entering the ID card system in this way.

4. Parliamentary Questions

a) Williams, S - Aimhigher Initiative (Performance)

Monday 3 March 2008

Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what assessment he has made of the performance of the Aim Higher Initiative in encouraging more pupils from deprived backgrounds to submit a UCAS application. [186615]

Bill Rammell: The Aimhigher programme is a major initiative designed to widen participation in higher education (HE), and increase opportunities for people from under-represented groups to attend higher education institutions and courses where competition for places is fiercest and which offer the highest financial rates of return.

There have been various evaluations of the programme which show that it has had a positive impact on participants' attainment and their attitudes towards HE. In the programme's early years (2001 to 2002 when it was known as Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge (AH: EC), before it became a national programme, research showed that being part of AH: EC:

- (a) led to an improvement in the proportion, by 4.6 per cent, of Year 9 pupils attaining levels 4, 5 or 6 in Maths at Key Stage 3;

- (b) involved improvement in nearly all measures of Year 11's GCSE results, with an average improvement in total points scored of 2.5, which corresponds to an increase of between two and three grades in one GCSE; and

- (c) AH: EC Year 11 participants were more likely to say that they intended to take part in HE (by 3.9 percentage points).

Research conducted by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) showed that over 70 per cent. of universities responding to its survey said that Aimhigher added value to their widening participation policies and activities have said that Aimhigher has provided a positive and welcome boost to their own efforts to widen participation in HE and that this has translated into increased applications.

Given the long-term nature of widening participation in HE, and the complex interplay of factors that affect participation patterns, it is not possible to determine conclusively the effect Aimhigher has had on applications made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). But we do know that Aimhigher makes a difference, because those who deliver and participate in it tell us so. And they can point at facts that support their case-for example, in the West Midlands, over the last five years, the more disadvantaged communities have produced the largest increases in applications and acceptances. Those are the areas where Aimhigher operates most intensively.

And we know that in England, since the introduction of Aimhigher, there has been a steady increase in the number and proportion of entrants to HE who come from lower social class backgrounds. This is reflected in the most recent UCAS application data for 2008 entry -in England, the proportion of applicants at age 18 coming from lower social class backgrounds is up from 28.2 per cent. in 2007 to 28.9 per cent. this year.

Widening participation requires long-term address and we have announced the continuation of Aimhigher to 2011. We will continue to work with HEFCE to commission a national study to report before the end of 2011 on outcomes across the whole programme since 2004, when the unified, national Aimhigher was introduced. And at local level, Aimhigher Partnerships will determine the extent to which the Aimhigher programme has raised HE awareness, aspirations and attainment among participants and within participating institutions.

b) Hayes - Students (Take-up of bursaries)

Monday 3 March 2008

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how his Department encourages students entitled to bursaries to apply for them; and if he will make a statement. [184038]

Bill Rammell: The great majority of those entitled to bursaries in 2006/07 either applied to their university for funding, or were the subject of an automatic notification of eligibility from the Student Loans Company to their university because they had given consent to the sharing of financial data.

Many universities have worked hard to maximise take up of bursaries. In some cases, not enough has been done, and the Director of Fair Access, Martin Harris, has written to universities where this is so. We support this initiative. In addition, at our request the Student Loans Company is providing clearer information to applicants for student loans about the benefits of giving consent to share financial data with universities, although consent to share rightly remains a matter of individual choice.

DIUS raises awareness of all elements of the higher education student finance package including bursaries via literature, web and campaign material.

Additionally, the Department established a bursary map

- www.direct.gov.uk/bursarymap

to help individuals link through to higher education institutions in England to find out what financial help they are offering and how they should apply.

c) Wilson, R - Student Loans (Interest)

Monday 3 March 2008

Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what assessment his Department has made of the merits of using the (a) retail prices index, (b) the consumer prices index and (c) the retail prices index excluding mortgage interest payments to calculate interest on student loans. [183933]

Bill Rammell: The Department keeps the interest rate of student loans under review but has no plans to deviate from the retail prices index (RPI) which reflects price movements across the whole economy. The RPI has been used since the introduction of student loans and ensures that borrowers repay the same, in real terms, as the amount borrowed.

Interest rates on loans are already generously subsidised in a way which is fair both to borrowers and to the taxpayer.

d) Williams, S - Undergraduate student bursaries

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how much the average bursary awarded to an undergraduate student was in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08; and if he will make a statement. [188037]

Bill Rammell: The data held indicates that a typical bursary for a student on full state support for 2006-07 and 2007-08 is around £1,000, although the exact sum each student receives will vary according to the institution's access agreement. It is not possible to create a meaningful overall average bursary because of the variance in institution's threshold above the full state support threshold.

e) Williams, S - Undergraduate student bursary levels

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what proportion of undergraduates enrolling on a higher education course received a bursary in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08; and if he will make a statement. [188036]

Bill Rammell: It is not possible to say what proportion of students overall received a bursary. However, we know that the Student Loans made 81,000 payments in 2006-07 via the Higher Education Bursary Scholarship System (HEBSS) that they manage. HEBSS allows students to apply for a bursary via the Local Authority at the same time as they apply for financial support. It is also important to note that 38 out of 125 institutions do not use this system, so we do not hold data on the number of payments they made. Nevertheless, OFFA report that no student who was eligible and applied for bursaries failed to receive one.

f) Wilson, R - Overseas student loans

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what mechanisms are in place to ensure repayment of student loans provided by the Student Loans Company by European Union nationals living outside the UK. [187649]

Bill Rammell [holding answer 3 March 2008]: The Student Loans Company has established payment arrangements for borrowers from other European Union countries who dropped out of their studies and became due to make repayment in April 2007, or who have graduated and become eligible to repay from April 2008. These existing arrangements will continue to apply when the first full cohort of borrowers from EU countries enters into repayment in April 2010.

The SLC has written to all EU borrowers due to start repayment and asked them to confirm the address where they expect to reside after graduation. If they are staying in the UK they will be expected to obtain a national insurance number and make repayments through the UK tax system. If they are going abroad they will be asked to supply an address and complete an overseas assessment form to allow repayments to be scheduled. These borrowers have been made aware of the variety of methods of repayment available to them.

So that all who can pay contribute to the costs of their education we have put in place variable threshold bands which are dependent on where the borrower lives. Effective collection across the EU is underpinned by EC regulation 44/2001, which allows the SLC to obtain judgments in UK courts, which can be enforced by courts in other EU countries.

In support of the EU repayment process the SLC is developing an enforcement strategy for borrowers who move abroad but who do not provide income details. This work is focussing on the collection of penalties, arrears and the movement of borrowers into litigation where this is appropriate. The SLC is piloting work in these areas and expects to have final arrangements in place by April 2009.

g) Williams, S - Higher education applications

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what criteria his Department uses to define a university applicant as a home or international student; and what account is taken as to whether they have indefinite leave to remain as opposed to exceptional leave to remain. [189267]

Bill Rammell: For student support purposes, a "home" student is a person who can demonstrate a specified connection with the UK and satisfy the other eligibility criteria. The specified connection consists of a combination of residence, immigration and in some cases nationality requirements.

Categories of student who may be eligible include those who on the first day of the first academic year of the course are:

- settled in the UK within the meaning of the Immigration Act of 1971 (which includes those with indefinite leave to remain) and

- persons awarded leave to enter or remain following a failed asylum application (Exceptional Leave to Enter or Remain, Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave) and their family members.

Both categories are required to have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for the three years prior to the start of their course.

Other categories of students may qualify tuition fee support or full student support provided they satisfy specific EEA/EC legislation requirements or have been awarded refugee status.

h) Willetts - Education finance

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what cost-benefit analysis has been made of the decision to reduce funding to equivalent or lower qualification students. [175714]

Bill Rammell: We are not cutting funding to higher education. There is no cost to the Exchequer because we are redistributing funding away from students doing equivalent or lower level qualifications in order to fund more new entrants to higher education than would otherwise be possible. First and foremost, we took this decision as a matter of fairness and social justice, but it also has an economic rationale. The additional lifetime earnings "premium" associated with getting a first degree in this country remains comfortably over £100,000 in today's prices which makes it among the highest in the developed world. Given that, it is clear that enabling 20,000 more new students (or students progressing to a higher level) to enter higher education will bring considerable long-term benefit to both individuals and the economy, through having a larger number of more highly qualified, more productive workers than would otherwise be the case.

i) Williams, S - Student Loan Applications (Charges for Identity Cards)

The following question was tabled on 5 March for answer on 7 March 2008.

Stephen Williams (Bristol West): To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, what estimate he has made of the financial impact upon young people of requiring them to pay for identity cards prior to applying for a student loan; and if he will make a statement.

(192729)