Clause 23 - Condition that may be required to be imposed by English funding bodies
Higher Education Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education), Department for Education and Skills; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
As my hon. Friend will be aware, the discussion I was having with my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield was about a rate of variability idea that he had in which the maximum fee should always be a multiplier of the standard fee. That related to the rate of variability discussion that we had had that very morning. His question to me was very focused and dealt not with fee caps, which we are debating now, but with the rate of variability. Hon. Members will have received a paper about the rate of variability from the Campaign for Mainstream Universities, which thinks that there should be a floor and that, instead of £0 to £3,000, the rate of variability should be higher. If the independent commissioner considers the issue and says that the rate should change, it will be a matter for primary legislation—it will be a much more complex matter than simply lifting the cap.