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7 Mar 2008 : Column 2901W—continued
Bill Rammell:
The 2 per cent. real terms annual increase in funding we are providing through the outcome of the comprehensive spending review, together with our policy of redistributing £100 million by 2010 away from students studying equivalent or lower level qualifications to ones they already hold, will enable us to provide 60,000 new places in full-time equivalent
terms for new students either entering HE for the first time or progressing to higher level degrees to ones they already hold.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills pursuant to his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 7 September on funding for equivalent and lower qualifications as additional degrees, what funding will be available for re-skilling students for higher level qualifications. [175803]
Bill Rammell: Our policy is a progressive redistribution of £100 million in institutional funding by 2010 away from students who already have a first HE qualification and want to study another one at an equivalent or lower level towards first time entrants which will enable more of the 20 million people of working age without a first HE qualification to participate in higher education and enjoy all the benefits it brings. However, our policy is a balanced one. There will be opportunities for those with a first HE qualification who want to re-skill in a different subject at the same or lower level, through foundation degrees, and employer co-funded provision and we will continue to fund students progressing to higher level qualifications than the ones they already hold.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills pursuant to his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 7 September on funding for equivalent and lower qualifications as additional degrees, what estimate he has made of the potential costs transferred to (a) business and the private sector, (b) the public sector and (c) the not-for-profit sector. [175804]
Bill Rammell: Our policy is a progressive redistribution of £100 million in institutional funding by 2010 away from students who already have a first HE qualification and want to study another one at an equivalent or lower level towards first time entrants will enable more of the 20 million people of working age who do not have a first HE qualification to participate in higher education and all the benefits it brings. But it will also bring economic benefits to employers by expanding the supply of more highly qualified, more productive workers. Lord Leitch’s report, comparative data from the OECD, and the fact that the lifetime earnings premium associated with having a first degree remains among the highest in the world, all suggest that employers in this country in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors are themselves, under the current system, paying for the fact that we are not producing enough graduates for our economic well-being.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills pursuant to his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 7 September on funding for equivalent and lower qualifications as additional degrees, what assessment he has made of the effect of his decision to withdraw funding on the viability of courses for first-time entrants to higher education. [175805]
Bill Rammell:
The outcome of the comprehensive spending review will enable us to support an additional 60,000 new places in full-time equivalent terms for new
students either entering HE for the first time or progressing to higher level degrees to ones they already hold. Despite doubts about the viability of growth and individual courses when we introduced our policies in 1997, there has already been an increase in the number of students in the system of over 300,000 and we remain confident that any sceptics will once again be proved wrong. That assessment is also consistent with Lord Leitch's report and comparative data from the OECD. An extra 5 million people will need to obtain a first higher education qualification by 2020 if we are to be even on the edge of the premier league for world-class skills, with 40 per cent. of the workforce with higher level qualifications.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills pursuant to his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 7 September on funding for equivalent and lower qualifications (ELQs) as additional degrees, how many part-time ELQ students he estimates will be affected in institutions other than the Open University. [175806]
Bill Rammell: No existing ELQ students will be affected at any institution. Our policy is a progressive redistribution of £100 million in institutional funding by 2010 away from students who already have a first HE qualification and want to study another one at an equivalent or lower level towards first time entrants will enable more of the 20 million people of working age who do not have a first HE qualification to participate in higher education and enjoy all the benefits it brings. The majority are likely to be mature learners from non-traditional backgrounds who want to study part-time.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills pursuant to his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 7 September on funding for equivalent and lower qualifications (ELQs) as additional degrees, whether his proposals extend to ELQ students on courses leading to qualifications in (a) child and adolescent studies and (b) biometric science. [175807]
Bill Rammell: Yes. In finalising our proposals, we have decided not to rush into making special arrangements, other than those subjects we have already identified as requiring support in the public interest—such as medicine, initial teacher training teaching, science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, area-based studies, and modern foreign languages. But we are asking the Funding Council each year to look at subjects which might in future be regarded as key because of their economic or social significance, and in cases where there is evidence of a fall in demand advise us on the best way forward. The first review will be in December 2008 and could provide an opportunity to look at these subjects. There will also be opportunities for those with a first HE qualification who want to retrain in these subjects, through foundation degrees, and employer co-funded provision.
Mr. Hayes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills pursuant to his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for
England of 7 September on funding for equivalent and lower qualifications (ELQs) as additional degrees, what savings he expects to make by ceasing public funding for ELQ students of (a) pharmacy, (b) psychology and (c) educational psychology. [175808]
Bill Rammell: None. We are redistributing funding not saving it. The large majority of students already study these subjects as a first HE qualification and as a result of our policy of redistributing £100 million by 2010 away from supporting ELQ students, there will be even more opportunities for students to study these subjects either as a first higher education qualification or a higher education qualification to one they already hold.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills pursuant to his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 7 September on funding for equivalent and lower qualifications as additional degrees, whether from 2008-09 a student with a higher national diploma studying for an accountancy qualification would qualify for funding. [175809]
Bill Rammell: Such a student would only attract institutional funding if the level of that accountancy qualification was higher than a higher national diploma. In other cases, there should still be opportunities available if the accountancy qualification was either a foundation degree or the course leading to the accountancy qualification was co-funded by an employer.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what consultation he undertook in advance of his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 7 September on funding for equivalent and lower qualifications (ELQs) as additional degrees on the effect of his request on the (a) administration and (b) regulation of the ELQ sector. [175810]
Bill Rammell: None because the request to HEFCE was itself a request to consult on the details of the decision we had already taken from first principles and advise us on the way these issues might best be tackled in a way that gets the balance right between regulation and not having an overly bureaucratic system. In all cases, HEFCE will work with institutions to audit fundable student numbers and final HEFCE funding will be determined oh the basis of audited returns and through a robust audit process.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills prior to his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 7 September on funding for equivalent and lower qualifications (ELQs), what research he commissioned on the effect of his request on access to higher education. [175811]
Bill Rammell:
The latest data from the labour market speak for themselves. There are 20 million people of working age who do not have a first HE qualification, including six million who have qualifications at A level or equivalent but have not progressed to higher education. Over time, new data from the labour market and
comparative date from the OECD will inform future analysis of whether we are producing enough graduates for our economic well-being and enabling enough people with the talent to succeed to access higher education to study for a first qualification.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what forecast he has made of the number of students enrolling for an equivalent and lower qualification (ELQ) as an additional degree between 2011 and 2015 who will no longer receive funding as a result of his request to the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 7 September; and how much funding he no longer plans to allocate to ELQ students in each of these years. [175812]
Bill Rammell: All we have asked HEFCE to do is to find savings of about £100 million a year by 2010-11. No strategic decision has been taken about whether to reallocate further ELQ funding after 2010-11 and no assessment has therefore been made about ELQ students enrolling between 2011 and 2015.
Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that students are informed of bursary and scholarship options prior to completing the PN1 student finance application form. [188041]
Bill Rammell: Universities and colleges offering higher education provide information about the bursaries and scholarships they offer. Following the publication of their annual monitoring report, the Office for Fair Access has written to all universities with an access agreement saying that not all eligible students have applied for bursaries and asking them to put more effort into advertising their bursaries to students.
DIUS continues to raise awareness of all elements of the higher education student finance package, including bursaries, via literature, web (including an interactive bursary map showing what finance institutions in England) and campaign material.
Information for prospective students on bursaries is also available via the Universities and Colleges Admissions System website.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many (a) undergraduate and (b) postgraduate students had their university fees (i) partially and (ii) wholly paid for by their employer in the last 12 months. [191165]
Bill Rammell: Information on the number of students who had their fees partially paid for by their employer is not available centrally. The latest available information on students who had their fees wholly paid for by their employer is given in the following table.
| Number of undergraduate and postgraduate students( 1) who had their fees wholly paid for by their employer—English higher education institutions | ||||
| Academic year 2006/07 | ||||
| Postgraduate | Undergraduate | |||
| Major source of tuition fees | Number | Percentage of known | Number | Percentage of known |
| (1) Includes both full-time and part-time students. (2) Employer as major source of tuition fees includes students who were recorded as having their tuition fees paid by “student’s employer” and “UK industry/commerce”. Note: Figures are on a HESA standard registration population basis. Figures have been rounded to the nearest five, so components may not sum to totals. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) | ||||
The Leitch Review of Skills encourages employers to support and fund the upskilling of their work force to level 4 or above to support the nation’s international competitiveness. He set a target for at least 40 per cent. of the nation’s work force to be qualified to level 4 or above by 2020.
Training: Employment
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what estimate he has made of the additional number of jobs that will be created for British citizens following the announcement of new training places made on 16 November 2007. [173748]
Bill Rammell: The UK has a dynamic and flexible labour market with the highest employment rate in the G7 and 2.8 million new jobs have been created in the UK since 1997. Despite this success there are too many people still missing out on work and the benefits that it brings. This Government are determined to ensure that no individual is left behind. Independent projections suggest that there will be five million fewer low-skilled people in work in 2020, and five million more higher-skilled people in work. This will require significant upskilling of the British population from today's levels.
The announcement of new training places reaffirms the Government's commitment to upskilling British people to provide them with the skills required in a more competitive labour market, to get them off benefits and into jobs and to help them to advance from low skilled to higher skilled jobs. We will continue to help those who need to improve their skills—the overwhelming majority of whom, but not all are British.
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