I am delighted to announce today the response to the Department for Education and Skill's consultation on Improving the Higher Education Applications Process. This response is issued on behalf of myself and my ministerial colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The consultation exercise that has led to today's publication was undertaken following a recommendation in the 2004 report from the Admissions to Higher Education Review group. That Group, chaired by Professor Steven Schwartz (former VC Brunel University), considered the principles that should underpin a fair and transparent admissions process and made a number of recommendations to the sector and to Government. One recommendation to Government was to -

"Set up a high-level implementation group as soon as possible to achieve PQA"

My right hon. Friend Mr. Charles Clarke, former Secretary of State for Education and Skills, in a statement to this House on 14 September 2004, accepted that recommendation and put in place the structures to fulfil that recommendation.

For the last 18 months, the Department for Education and Skills has been consulting with key stakeholders in the education sector on how this could be achieved. A public consultation was launched on 9 September 2005 that included a number of proposals for reform to the current application system and offered for consideration two models of post-qualification application (PQA).

Having analysed and considered the response to that consultation, we are pleased to recommend a number of reforms which will make the system fairer for students and more efficient for higher education institutions. Responses identified strong support in principle for a move towards a system of PQA, but also many practical obstacles to implementing such a system.

We believe that the reforms we recommend for 2008-09 will realise some of the key benefits of PQA and lay firm foundations for further steps in that direction. Crucially, the proposed new system for 2008-09 will offer those students who achieve higher grades than required by their first firm conditional offer the chance to seek an alternative place that best matches their aspirations and circumstances. We want to build on the step-change that these early reforms represent and, in light of experience of them, commit to working for the introduction of PQA from 2012. We have recommended a further review in 2010-11 to facilitate that objective.

In summary, the reforms would:

provide more and better information on which HEIs can base their admissions decisions; involve students submitting, and HEIs considering, fewer initial applications, thereby reducing administrative burdens; ensure applications are considered on the basis of a gathered field, creating a more equal chance for all students and reducing the temptation for them to place early, ill-researched applications; give students better feedback on their applications, allowing them to make better informed decisions about their HE options; give those who have failed to gain an offer with their initial applications better opportunities to continue applying in search of a place; result in fewer students needing to enter Clearing; and offer those students who achieve higher grades than required by their first firm conditional offer the chance to seek an alternative place that best matches their aspirations and circumstances.

We have recommended the establishment of a delivery partnership, involving representatives from higher and further education, schools and other interested stakeholders, to introduce these recommendations for the 2008-09 academic year. The delivery partnership will also be tasked with assessing the impact of those changes after they have had time to bed down and to review again a move towards a full PQA system.