Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: Discussions are underway with the higher education sector to ensure they are ready to meet their legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 by 2015. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is currently undertaking a review of provision and support for disabled students in higher education.
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay: The government abhors antisemitism in all its forms and has for several years pushed for greater action from higher education providers in addressing it. This has included encouraging them to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, in order to have universal clarity of what constitutes antisemitic behaviour. The government expects universities and...
Viscount Younger of Leckie: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, and noble Lords for this valuable opportunity to discuss freedom of speech further. As the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, said, we all recognise that it is a crucial principle at the heart of higher education. I am particularly grateful for the meetings and discussions I have had with the noble Baroness, Lady...
Greg Clark: Discussions are underway with the higher education sector to ensure institutions are ready to meet their legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 in respect of the changes for 2015/16 and 2016/17. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is currently undertaking a review of provision and support for disabled students in higher education which will help to inform this.
Ben Wallace: The Office for Students has delegated responsibility, from the Secretary of State for Education, for monitoring compliance of the Prevent Duty in the higher education (HE) sector. The latest Office for Students monitoring report shows high levels of compliance, with over 97% of universities and other HE providers having due regard for the duty. Under this delegation, the Secretary of State...
Michelle Donelan: Clause 9 gives effect to the schedule to the Bill that makes minor and consequential amendments to other legislation. These consequential amendments are necessary to give effect to the main provisions of the Bill and to make all the legislation work together seamlessly and consistently. Part 1 of the schedule provides for a number of amendments to be made to part 1 of the Higher Education and...
Jo Johnson: Of course, the Office for Students is there to represent all interests in our higher education system. The Higher Education and Research Act 2017 puts an obligation on the Secretary of State to have regard to a wide range of factors in making such appointments, including that board members must reflect the broad range of higher education providers, those who experience higher education—the...
David Willetts: Universities have duties under the Equality Act 2010 (which incorporated the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995) to support disabled students in higher education, including those with mental health conditions. Higher education institutions have clear duties and responsibilities with regard to ensuring that disabled students do not face discrimination or less favourable treatment while...
Michelle Donelan: We know the important role that student unions play in ensuring that freedom of speech can thrive on our university campuses. We therefore know how vital it is for the current legislative framework to be extended to student unions and approved fee cap providers—a category of registered higher education providers—as provided for by clause 2. It is necessary to have mechanisms in place to...
David Willetts: The Department is not itself undertaking specific activity to promote deaf awareness in higher education. However, we provide funding to both the Disability Alliance and the Equality Challenge Unit, independent organisations which alongside providing advice and guidance to higher education institutions also help raise awareness about a range of equality issues in the sector. Higher education...
Michelle Donelan: The Office for Students is the regulator for higher education in England and as such it has a vital role to play in ensuring that our universities and colleges continue to be spaces where views can be freely expressed and debated, without fear of repercussions. The OfS regulates English higher education providers by way of registration conditions. The current registration condition requires...
Iain Gray: Improving access to further and higher education is a key priority. We have drawn the funding councils' attention to the importance of ensuring that the institutions comply with the new duties under the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged in accessing further and higher education. We have provided the funding councils with...
Lord Bates: .... I accept that that evidence is not in the marshalled form in which the noble Baroness and the Committee might like, but it is certainly there in the evidence from the regional co-ordinators of the Prevent strategy, who say that some institutions simply do not comply and show no willingness to comply with guidance in the Prevent programme which is there already. Some do that very well;...
Michelle Donelan: The Office for Students, as the regulator of the higher education sector in England, provides a valuable independent service that helps to ensure that our universities are institutions to be proud of. Universities have historically been centres of inquiry and intellectual debate and bastions of free thought from which new idea can emerge to challenge the current consensus. The OfS is...
David Willetts: It is a long-established principle that universities have a duty of care to their students. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are under no legal obligations in relation to the emotional wellbeing of their students but they do have duties under the Equality Act 2010 to support disabled students in higher education, including those with mental health conditions. HEIs themselves will...
Moved by Viscount Younger of Leckie 100: After Clause 37, insert the following new Clause—“Duty to monitor etc the provision of arrangements for student transfers(1) The OfS—(a) must monitor the availability of schemes or other arrangements provided by registered higher education providers for student transfers and the extent to which those arrangements are utilised by students...
Michelle Donelan: I, too, thank the Clerks for their work in facilitating this Committee. Amendment 50 would reinstate the wording currently in section 43(1) of the Education (No. 2) Act 1986, where the freedom of speech duty applies to individuals and bodies involved in a higher education provider’s governance or management. The approach in the Bill, which is to impose the duty on the provider’s governing...
Michelle Donelan: Thank you, Sir Christopher, and thank you for your kind words and those of other Committee members. The amendment seeks to require providers to report quarterly to the Office for Students on how they are meeting their freedom of speech duties. The duties in the Bill, including those relating to the OfS, sit alongside duties already set out in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. The...
Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) with reference to the report of the Higher Education Funding Council for England on “Diverse provision in higher education: options and challenges”, if he will take steps to ensure that higher education courses provided by private providers are subject to the same standards of (a) transparency, (b) assessment and (c)...
“(1) The Higher Education and Research Act 2017 is amended as follows. (2) After section 69C (as inserted by section 8) insert— “69D Overseas funding: registered higher education providers (1) The OfS must monitor the overseas funding of registered higher education providers and their constituent institutions with a view to assessing the extent to which the funding presents a risk to...