Student Finance

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:52 pm on 23 June 2003.

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Photo of Gordon Marsden Gordon Marsden Labour, Blackpool South 5:52, 23 June 2003

With respect to the hon. Gentleman, that is not my recollection of what the Minister said. The important point is that we need pluralistic funding mechanisms that address the problems, especially those of the post-1992 universities to which I have referred.

The Conservatives have come up with a rather weak and sad prospectus, and I do not intend to dwell on it at length except to say that, having given a sort of green light—albeit without funding—to the expansion of the old polytechnics in the post-1992 university settlement, they now propose a sentence of death on those universities, because even if their figures added up, the effects of their proposals would be catastrophic. The number of university places under threat would be 90,000 at the moment, and probably 150,000 over time, representing a 20 per cent. drop overall. Indeed, Mr. Green, who is not in his place at the moment, said as much in his press release of 30 May, when he stated:

"Under the Conservatives, the university sector would be smaller."