Conditions that may be required to be imposed by English funding bodies
Higher Education Bill
10:15 am
Mr David Rendel (Shadow Minister (Higher Education), Education & Skills; Newbury, Liberal Democrat)
Yes, I accept that, but I am no clearer about what the Conservatives wish. Other Conservative Members will have the chance to clarify, and we may then decide that we would like to support that amendment after all. At present, I am dubious about whether it would have the effect that we would like.
Some of our amendments in this string refer to later clauses—others have been selected on later clauses, which also affect our view on OFFA—but for the moment it will be sufficient for us to try and pass amendment No. 56. If we get that, I hope that a number of the other amendments will become consequential.
The real issue is who should monitor the effect of the plans and impose any financial penalty. It is our view that HEFCE and the Teacher Training Agency should be the bodies that do the monitoring and impose any financial penalty. Even in clauses 22 and 23, HEFCE will be given the duty of imposing conditions and penalties for non-compliance, or where no plan is agreed. HEFCE already has a considerable part to play in this. The only real issue is to what extent OFFA will have a part as well.
Clause 31(1) says, in effect, that OFFA must monitor the maximum fee for each qualifying course. That could be a very major job, and one of our concerns is whether the Government are suggesting
sufficient funding for OFFA to do it. The Government are claiming that there will not be that much to do because most of the institutions will simply give an assurance each year that they have met the requirements and are in compliance with their plans. OFFA would then not have much to do—but it could be a very big job indeed. That is a concern about passing such duties over to OFFA from HEFCE.
The whole point of introducing this new institution, OFFA, is to ensure the success of the Government's widening participation aims, which we share. There are three parts to widening participation: recruitment, outreach and retention. One of the interesting aspects of the Government's current scheme is that, although they seem to intend to pass over to OFFA recruitment and outreach, HEFCE will still be responsible for retention. Why is a differentiation made between the different aspects of widening participation? If HEFCE will still be responsible for retention, why should it not also be responsible for outreach and recruitment? Why must we set up a new bureaucracy to differentiate between them?
The Government responded to that issue in their consultation on the White Paper. In the draft guidance on the director of fair access, they stated:
''We do not think that HEFCE should be asked to take on the dual role of funder and regulator in this area; the potential conflicts in such a role may not have been fully appreciated.''
They appear to be concerned that the new body, whichever it may be, should not fulfil both responsibilities, but that appears to contradict their guidance in the DFES paper, ''Widening participation in higher education'', in which they state:
''In the higher education White Paper, we suggested OFFA also having a role in relation to non-completion of courses''.
That is retention. It continues:
''However, on reflection the Government believes that the job of promoting action to bear down on non-completion is best undertaken by HEFCE. Moreover, HEFCE will retain responsibility for the institutional funding formula, including any premia to compensate for the additional costs of recruiting and retaining students''.
That implies that it makes sense for HEFCE to retain responsibility in at least one area—that of retention—in which it also has responsibility for funding. It is odd, therefore, that the Government use possible conflict of interests as an argument against HEFCE also having responsibility for outreach and recruitment. They cannot argue to keep in retention for the very reason that they say that recruitment and outreach should be ruled out.
In summary, we believe that it would be necessary—