Clause 23 - Condition that may be required to be imposed by English funding bodies
Higher Education Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
Absolutely. My hon. Friend is right, and of course three years from now is well beyond the introduction of top-up fees and well beyond the practical reality of some of the shortcomings that cause so much concern to those who are active in part-time higher education and in the institutions that deliver so much quality education to so many people. I shall touch on some of those issues this afternoon.
Fundamentally, although the Government should be considering a variety of questions, two major issues arise from the Bill and appear to leave injustices and flaws in the direction of the part-time student sector. The first relates to the support for part-time students. The point has been powerfully made by those in part-time study and their representatives that it does not seem fair and appropriate that part-time students who earn less than the earnings threshold that the Government are using to assess student support for full-time students have to pay their fees up front, whereas full-time students will be able to defer payments until they are earning above the threshold. The reality is that that is a serious injustice in the eyes of many who are in part-time study or who plan to enter part-time study in future. One can have some sympathy with them because, although in a college such as Birkbeck many people have professional roles and are taking degree courses to enhance their skills and move up a rung on the career ladder, very many people studying for part-time degrees are doing so from relatively humble means because they want to take their own step up the social ladder. The Government must be mindful of their situation. There is strong message coming out of the sector that that is an injustice that needs to be righted. The Government have not got it right for those students.
Although we debated the need for universities to receive more money, the Bill will provide additional funding for the full-time higher education institutions, but the two principal providers of part-time study—the Open university and Birkbeck college—will not benefit at all. Many institutions provide a package of part-time learning alongside their full-time studies.
Birkbeck college and the OU fear that they will be disadvantaged in relation to those competitors who will be able to strengthen their part-time offer by pooling the funding that they receive and deploying some of it into the part-time arena. They will have no access to additional funds at all as a result of these measures and they perceive that as an enormous injustice.
The Government will not want to see a weakening of those institutions or of their role in moving people step-by-step up the ladder of achievement. The evidence is that they make a significant contribution to help people advance their careers. A stark figure quoted in a recent report is that 54 per cent. of students who completed their part-time courses at Birkbeck received a wage increase, with the median increase being 27 per cent. These institutions make a major difference to people's lives.
The hon. Member for Nottingham, North rightly describes some of the social issues that his constituents face and the low levels of participation in his constituency. He also pointed out that as people move on beyond education it is sometimes difficult to claw back the lost ground. One of the best avenues open to those who wish they had done GCSEs and A-levels and then gone on to university is to study part time. In later life it is often simply not practical for people to give up three years to go into full-time education. They may have a family or the problem of affording their mortgage repayments or their rent.
The opportunity to study part time is enormously important. It can make a powerful difference to people who have been left behind by the education system. We must ensure that the institutions that provide the core of our part-time higher education system are not left behind as a result of the changes brought about by the Bill. They are worried that that will happen.