Clause 23 - Condition that may be required to be imposed by English funding bodies
Higher Education Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Ivan Lewis (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Education and Skills; Bury South, Labour)
Can I have another go, Mr. Gale? I have been sitting on the Bench for so long that I am forgetting the rules of the game. In the context of further education, where variability has been the norm for as long as we can remember—the issue was never raised by hon. Members nor, so far as I know, by my hon. Friend when he did this job—why is there now such an objection to variability as a matter of values and principles? That is apparently a contradiction of the social justice and widening participation objectives that Government Members certainly view as central to our aspirations and ambitions for higher education. The hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough failed to answer that question this morning. I ask my hon. Friend to try to tell me what the difference is, and where the values and principles are that divide us.