Clause 23 - Condition that may be required to be imposed by English funding bodies
Higher Education Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Graham Allen (Nottingham North, Labour)
If I reach amendment No. 144, I will be pleased to deal with that.
There was debate about intervening in the market, but we are clearly intervening in it by creating a £3,000 a year grant and abolishing up-front fees. Some of us want to go further. I would prefer to replace the current loan rate with a Government rate of interest, which would create another £600 million that could be spent on additional grants. That would also interfere with the market. I want the Select Committee on Education and Skills to consider annually how the new system develops, so it can also make suggestions to change and improve the market.
My right hon. Friend the Minister knows about the situation in Australia. If it is true that £13 out of £14 will be paid for by the state, why do we not let students know that fact in the most obvious way by giving them a cheque cashable only at their university? That will mean that they pay that money to the university, as well as their one 14th contribution.
Finally, on additions to the market, there is a raft of later amendments about sponsoring individual students and public services helping students through university, in the same way as the Army scheme and others do. There are many ways in which we all want to and will intervene in the market, so let us not have any more nonsense about how we are creating a market where there has not been one before.
Amendment No. 144 addresses that point directly. It refers directly to cap on fees, and I make no bones about saying that the best way to cap fee income and levels is to have a tough regulator. That is why I have tabled amendments to strengthen the office for fair access and make it more like Ofsted. It should have teeth and ensure that instead of being merely reactive when a university proposes an increase, it gets stuck in and starts to regulate early on.