Results 1-8 of 8 for ("top up" fees) speaker:James Clappison

Written Answers — Education and Skills: Student Loans (29 Jun 2005)

James Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what legal powers are available to the Student Loans Company to obtain repayments of loans in respect of top-up fees from graduates from EU member states working outside the UK; what estimate she has made of the likely total value of such loans in each year; and if she will make a statement.

Higher Education Bill: New Clause 5 — Abolition of tuition fees chargeable to qualifying student (31 Mar 2004)

Mr James Clappison: In the spirit of the intervention of my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Mr. Boswell), does my hon. Friend recollect that, in its manifesto, Labour not only promised not to introduce top-up fees but said that the Labour Government had legislated to prevent them?

Public Bill Committee: Higher Education Bill: Clause 23 - Condition that may be required to be imposed by English funding bodies (24 Feb 2004)

Mr James Clappison: May I assist my hon. Friend with something even more up to date than that? Just before the last general election, when Ministers were saying not only that they did not intend to introduce top-up fees but that they were unnecessary, the then Minister with responsibility for higher education said: ''The Government's position on 'top-up' fees is clear—we are opposed to them and have...

Public Bill Committee: Higher Education Bill: Clause 22 - Power of Secretary of State to impose condition as to student fees, etc. (12 Feb 2004)

Mr James Clappison: ...quoting further from what the Minister said. To be fair to the Government, they did fulfil the 1992 Labour pledge that when they returned to power, they would legislate to prevent the imposition of top-up fees. The Government did that in their Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998. No doubt, the Minister is well aware of that. They were as good as their word, and based their last...

Public Bill Committee: Higher Education Bill: Clause 22 - Power of Secretary of State to impose condition as to student fees, etc. (12 Feb 2004)

Mr James Clappison: ...by my hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell and by the Minister, under the clause the Secretary of State has the power to set conditions on the funding to the funding agencies relating to fee levels, and the admission arrangements of individual institutions. As I indicated earlier, the Minister has helpfully supplied us with draft regulations to study, and has given a partial...

Public Services, Health and Education (3 Dec 2003)

Mr James Clappison: ...is not his subject, but he has no shortage of views—will enlighten me as to the factors that led the Government to make that pledge. Were they not the same concerns about access and attending top universities that have been expressed by his colleagues this afternoon? I look forward to his answer. Can the Secretary of State tell us, for example, whether anything happened in the past...

Public Services, Health and Education (3 Dec 2003)

Mr James Clappison: I have one more point to make, if the hon. Gentleman will contain himself, and then I shall give way to him. Another aspect of the distorting effect of top-up fees is their impact on students' choice of career. If graduates are leaving university with debts of £20,000 to £30,000—it will probably be much more in the fullness of time—they will surely think about how to pay...

Public Services, Health and Education (3 Dec 2003)

Mr James Clappison: Is the Secretary of State saying that his manifesto makes the statement on top-up fees with the qualification that it would not be done before the next general election? The manifesto says: "We will not introduce top-up fees and have legislated to prevent them."