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Higher Education

5.22 p.m.

Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe rose to call attention to the work of universities in widening participation, as set out in Universities UK's report Social Class and Participation in Higher Education; and to move for Papers.

The noble Baroness said: My Lords, in introducing this debate, I want to bring to the attention of the House the wonderful work being done by universities across the UK to widen participation. In doing so, I should declare an interest as chief executive of Universities UK. Perhaps I may say how much I appreciate the fact that many noble Lords will be speaking in the debate, many of them with extensive experience of higher education. I look forward to their contributions with anticipation.

In many ways, this debate follows up several of the issues that the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, raised in his debate last week—in which I was unfortunately unable to speak. I hope that your Lordships will forgive me for seeking to give higher education a second bite of the cherry so soon afterwards.

Like the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, I want to welcome the words of my right honourable friend the Chancellor in his Budget speech two weeks ago, when he acknowledged the need for investment in higher education. Universities UK hopes that when he announces the results of his spending review in July, he will follow up on his commitment with hard cash.

One specific area in which I know that my right honourable friend takes a keen interest and which is one of the top 10 priorities for the Government in their second term is widening participation. I want to talk today about the vital work done on that by universities. That work is highlighted in Universities UK's recently published report, Social Class and Participation in Higher Education. For both that report and its 1998 predecessor, From Elitism to Inclusion, we are indebted among others to Professor Maggie Woodrow. Professor Woodrow was a tireless campaigner for widening participation until her untimely death in October last year.

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What does the report do? It identifies good practice and evaluates the strategies of both the higher education sector and the Government in widening participation. It provides hard evidence on what works best successfully to increase participation among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. By drawing on 23 case studies, such as the partners programme at the University of Newcastle, the report shows how targeted initiatives by individual institutions are contributing to the social inclusion agenda. Nine of those studies are entirely new and some concentrate for the first time on high-demand subject areas such as medicine and the creative arts.

Without exception, every university and higher education college in the UK is working hard to widen participation. We should be proud of their hard work. They have employed not just lone individuals but teams of dedicated staff on that work. It is not done as an afterthought but is a mainstream activity in all institutions.

Perhaps I may spend a few minutes explaining why that is so. For too long, not all those who could benefit from a university education have had the chance to go to university. That has been a tremendous waste of talent. That lack of opportunity has prevented both the individuals concerned from realising their full potential and the nation from tapping into that potential. As one of the academics at the launch of our publication, herself involved in a scheme in inner London, said, our report is,

"a celebration of unlocking the potential of many people who would not traditionally have accessed higher education".

It is illuminating to consider some specific illustrations of what higher education institutions are doing. Nottingham Trent University has developed progression partnerships—a programme that featured in the first report. I am happy to say that its combination of compacts with local schools and support programmes in the Nottingham area has led to a demonstrable increase in recruitment from those same schools.

The Guy's, King's and St Thomas's School of Medicine is working to widen access to medical courses—an area where access for students from less affluent backgrounds has in the past been especially low. The school of medicine has liaised closely with local schools in south London; provided summer courses for new students; developed new course structures; and provided support to students.

That work is not confined to England, although in other parts of the UK responsibility for such activities is now devolved. For example, the Glasgow School of Art is aiming to increase by 10 per cent the number of students from non-traditional backgrounds that it recruits to study art—another area often perceived to be largely a middle class pursuit.

Universities are also working to ensure that the courses that they offer are relevant and exciting to students, which after all is vital if we are to persuade potential students that they have something to gain from university. I urge noble Lords not to underestimate the huge transformation in what

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employers, the professions and students now make clear that they want from universities. A good example is the degree in surf science and technology at Plymouth University, which is meeting the needs of local business—it enjoys sponsorship from industry to prove it—and produces graduates with knowledge of areas as diverse as oceanic science, materials technology and business studies.

I use that modern example deliberately, because it is precisely such degrees that are criticised and derided because they sound untraditional by those who hanker after some mythical golden past. Yet it is rigorously academically assessed, attracts excellent students and fulfils a real need. There are many similar examples. Noble Lords associated with universities will know from their experience how frustrating are such criticisms.

Perhaps I should return to the report. It makes clear that the goals of widening and of increasing participation are not necessarily one and the same. As the Government have made clear, it is not enough simply to increase the number of students entering higher education. It has been argued that the target could be achieved by attracting more people from the same sort of background as we attract at present. We must also target more people from less affluent backgrounds who have not previously believed that university was the right option—or even an available option—for them.

The report also makes it clear that the existing mechanisms for student support need review, a fact that the Prime Minster rightly recognised in his party conference speech last year. I am glad to say that he acted on the matter by setting up the current review. I hope that the results of that review will be known soon and that it targets support where it is needed—those who are the focus of the case studies in the report.

We all recognise that the key to widening participation lies in motivating and inspiring young people in our schools. That is why so many of our institutions have compact agreements and other close links with schools in their area. For example, the Government's Aimhigher campaign is an excellent initiative. It brings together schools and universities to motivate and inspire young people to think about the benefits of going to university. Our battle is in schools; we must win the hearts and minds of our young people.

It is also important that we do not forget the role of further education colleges. If we are to meet the 50 per cent participation target, the further development of links between universities and further education colleges is vital. It is through such links that many students will find their way through to higher education. People working in both sectors are striving to achieve that.

Your Lordships will have come to expect me to say that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Widening participation costs money. All those efforts are likely to produce at least 30,000 extra students each and every year. The 17,000 extra members of staff needed to teach the extra students must be paid. A report to be published next week by the Universities and Colleges

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Employers Association will set out in stark terms the costs of staff recruitment and retention in higher education and the cost of not meeting that bill. There is recognition in all quarters that to recruit and retain non-traditional students and transfer them effectively into work or further study means additional costs. Those costs make up a significant part of the total bid for the next three years—almost £10 billion—that we have submitted to the Government in this spending round.

I shall give your Lordships one example of those additional costs. The access premium and the way in which it targets resources are critical to change. We have argued in our submission to the spending review that it should be increased to at least 20 per cent. In fact, the results of a pilot study by Universities UK and HEFCE into the real costs of widening access, which are due to be published soon, show that the extra costs of widening access are about £1,500 per student for the two institutions featured. That is a cost premium for them of roughly 35 per cent, as opposed to the 20 per cent figure identified and recommended in a report last year by the Select Committee on Education and Employment in another place.

Of course, all universities are concerned to ensure that our students, whatever their background, have a high quality experience at university. That requires university teaching to be informed by research, provided by high quality and motivated staff. Students must work in buildings fit for the purpose and use equipment comparable to that found in their eventual workplace. We would not want to encourage more students from less well-off backgrounds to enter higher education only for them to be deprived of a first-class education when they got there.

The Government must invest in all those areas. As our submission to the spending review makes clear, it would be investment for success, not only success in reaching the 50 per cent target by 2010 or in widening participation, but the future success of an increasingly diverse student population. That investment will be worth it. The engagement of the students with the world as socially responsible, economically active and enthusiastic members of society will result in nothing less than the continued success of our civilised, knowledge-based economy.

Everyone is trying to reach out to those who, in the past, have not had a chance to benefit from higher education. Last century, the Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, said:

"The principal goal of education is to create people who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done".

It is vital that we do not make the mistake of earlier generations and fail to harness the full potential of all those who could benefit from going to university. My Lords, I beg to move for Papers.

5.35 p.m.

Lord Baker of Dorking: My Lords, it must be galling for the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick of Undercliffe, a devoted supporter of the Government, to find that

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many of the reports produced by her Universities UK do not support her as she might wish. Universities UK has identified a huge funding gap in teaching and research, and the Government have not filled it. The noble Baroness indicated in her concluding words that the document that she has produced today is a menu without prices. She expects a huge amount of money, but I do not expect for one moment that the Government will provide it.

The Government's policy for our universities is a mess. It is riddled with political correctness and hypocrisy, and it is beginning to wreak real damage on our universities. The first mistake was to set the target of 50 per cent participation by 2010. I set a participation rate of 30 per cent in 1990. I chose that figure because, in developed countries, the most effective universities are in countries with a participation rate of about 30 per cent. France is an example of how mass high education can make a mess of things. In that country, there is a participation rate of 58 per cent. That is why so many French students now come to British universities and why few overseas students go to French universities. There are classes of 500 and tutorial groups of 50. Half the students who go to French universities fail their first degree, and there is a huge drop-out rate.

Mass higher education inevitably means massive drop-out rates. It is already happening in the UK. There was a drop-out rate of 41 per cent at the University of North London last year, 33 per cent at Thames Valley and South Bank and 31 per cent at Bolton. Why is it happening? It is too easy to say that it is because students must contribute to the cost of their education. A really committed student will stick to the course. Our clearing system pushes many students who do not get onto the course that they had wanted into undersubscribed courses that they do not want. It is little wonder that so many leave. As the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, said in his debate the other day, we need a massive expansion of further education in this country—as the noble Baroness said, it could be linked in some cases to higher education—to produce practical, vocational training. Thus we will avoid the drop-out rate.

The Government's policy is hypocritical. They have decided that more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds should go to our leading universities. I do not object to that as a social objective, rather than an educational objective. I was the first generation of my family to go to university. However, we should recognise what Oxford, Cambridge, University College, Imperial College and the LSE are doing to attract more disadvantaged pupils.

The Government should not ask why top universities do not take more students from disadvantaged backgrounds: they should ask why so many secondary schools fail to produce students with the right qualifications and ambitions who want to go to those universities. Graduates and undergraduates are not created by government decree or by bullying; they are created by the quality of the education that the child experiences from the age of five. That is where the

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Government so frequently fall down. The universities have not failed. They should not be named and shamed by Margaret Hodge and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Graduates are not made by government decree; they are made by improving the system of secondary education.

Margaret Hodge, Minister for Higher Education, recently said that she wants the top universities to take in students even if they do not have the appropriate qualifications. I am only pleased that Margaret Hodge is not in charge of the selection of the English soccer team! As your Lordships know, the English Soccer team is totally socially unrepresentative of our country. There are no pupils from private schools, grammar schools or city technology colleges in the team. Why should they not be put there in order to give them the opportunity to represent their country and to earn massive sums of money? Fortunately, that will not happen but it is the read-across to another area of activity.

It is ironic that only this week the universities of Manchester, Birmingham and Warwick have opened up a selling office in Seoul, South Korea, in order to attract more overseas students from that country. The Government fully support that policy because there are 17,000 South Korean students at our universities. However, let us think for a moment what that means. Parents from South Korea will be able to buy places for their children at British universities. Those children do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds but from highly privileged backgrounds, fully supported by the Government. Provided that one is not British, if one can afford it one can be asked to pay. Therefore the parents in South Korea are to be given the opportunity denied to parents in Southend, Southport and Southampton. Therein lies the hypocrisy of this Government.

A fundamental review is needed of the funding of universities. I want to see the return of our universities being genuinely independent private institutions with little or no government interference. That means top-up fees and substantial tax breaks to establish scholarship funds. However, I would like to see those return because I would trust the universities to make a better job of running themselves than the Government running them.

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