Parmjit Dhanda (Gloucester, Labour)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment he has made of the merits of reducing the cost to students of taking a second degree.

David Lammy (Minister of State (Higher Education and Intellectual Property), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; Tottenham, Labour)

In general, we believe it is right to give priority in spending public funds on students studying a degree for the first time. This has for some time been our policy on financial support for students, and it has increasingly been our policy in respect of the teaching grant paid to universities since 2008. We believe it to be the right policy on grounds of equity because it allows more people access to higher education; and because it is the most effective way to grow the number of people with high levels skills. There are exceptions to this general presumption: for example, students going to study at a higher level, and students studying programmes which most clearly meet economic needs such as foundation degree programmes.