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Mr. Donald Gorrie (Edinburgh, West): On a point of order, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker: Order. I take points of order after statements. I shall call the hon. Gentleman then.
Mr. Stephen Dorrell (Charnwood): I thank the Secretary of State for sending me an advance copy of Sir Ron Dearing's report. I echo the right hon. Gentleman's thanks to Sir Ron and his committee for a huge piece of work on the future of our higher education system.
That is the end of the facts. The right hon. Gentleman should be aware that his statement will be met with widespread disappointment, not only on the Benches behind him but throughout the higher education world. That disappointment will turn to anger when people realise the scale of the lost opportunity that the Government have allowed to pass and the scale of the right hon. Gentleman's defeat at the hands of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Treasury.
The consistent theme of the Chancellor is, in the words of Fagin to the Artful Dodger, "You've got to pick a pocket or two." First the Government picked the pockets of the pension funds, then on Monday they picked the pockets of the national lottery and now they are picking the pockets of students and their families from the low-income sections of our community.
Sir Ron Dearing's committee was established with bipartisan support. The committee was established because both the former Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for South-West Norfolk (Mrs. Shephard), and the right hon. Gentleman recognised that higher education had expanded under the previous Government. They wanted a review of the structure of higher education, to allow it to proceed in the next 30 years on an affordable basis, as the Robins report had done 30 years ago.
Sir Ron Dearing's committee produced 400 pages of important recommendations, and we heard the Secretary of State's reaction to only one of them--and that was to reject it. What does he have to say on the objectives set out in Sir Ron Dearing's report, on increased participation by young people in university and higher education? Does the Secretary of State agree with those objectives? We did not hear that. Does he agree with Sir Ron Dearing and his committee that we should introduce a more flexible structure of qualification following higher education? We did not hear that. Does the Secretary of State agree with Sir Ron Dearing and his committee that we need a review of the settlement of academic pay? We did not hear a word about that from the Secretary of State.
I believe that I am right in saying that the word "research" hardly touched the Secretary of State's lips this afternoon. He set out nothing in response to Sir Ron Dearing's recommendations on the future of research in higher education. In particular, Sir Ron Dearing sets out his assessment of the extra resources needed in higher education from next April. His figure is £350 million. Do the Government agree with that figure? If they do, where is the money coming from? If they do not, where do the Government disagree with Sir Ron Dearing and his committee? To none of those questions did the Secretary of State give any form of answer.
The Secretary of State said in his statement:
In his statement, the Secretary of State answered only one question, on undergraduate finance. He was crystal clear, and said:
Is the Secretary of State aware that his statement is a major lost opportunity for British higher education, and a shabby and opportunistic smash-and-grab raid on the budgets of low-income families?
Mr. Blunkett:
I am deeply disappointed at the right hon. Gentleman's response. We established all-party agreement on the setting up of the Dearing inquiry, and we set Sir Ron and his committee a difficult task. I have grasped the nettle of picking up on the recommendations in that report, together with our own proposals in "Lifelong Learning", which were put to the electorate on 1 May. Those proposals included changes to the maintenance and grant system.
We have taken Sir Ron's recommendations and built on them, to ensure that no low-income student has to pay fees in higher education; that there will be an additional contribution through a loan of £250; and that we protect those in teaching and health. We have, in essence, taken on board the thrust of the principles that Sir Ron laid out, but built on them to ensure that even more money will be available over the next 20 years.
The right hon. Member for Charnwood (Mr. Dorrell) accuses me of not understanding or not appreciating the needs of low-income families. I do, because I came from one. I know that what is necessary for the future is to be able to offer young men and women the opportunity to go into higher education as we lift standards in schools. If we do not put more money into higher education and if we lift access, and cannot respond to that demand, it is precisely the low-income groups that will be excluded.
I repeat to the right hon. Gentleman what I said in my statement. Over the past decade, the participation of those in socio-economic groups D and E, to which he referred, has increased by only half of that of higher-income groups. It was precisely for that reason that Sir Ron recommended increased access. I ask the right hon. Gentleman not to come to the House simply to criticise us for what he ridiculously called opportunism, when he has not a single answer to the question of raising the funds that are needed.
We have grasped this difficult nettle, we have taken on the challenge of expansion and of ensuring that young people have opportunities for the future, and yes, we have given a commitment that the resources will go into universities and colleges. I challenge the Opposition to say where they stand, what future this country would have had under their proposals and why they are ducking the opportunity for consensus in going forward on proposals for investment for our country.
Mr. John Gunnell (Morley and Rothwell):
I am conscious that my right hon. Friend has given a positive statement. Will he particularly consider the position of part-time students who are currently paying fees? As he will know, that group was especially failed by the Conservative party. Will he assure me that, in considering the proposals, he will offer those students a better deal than they would have had if the Conservative party had been responding to the report?
Mr. Blunkett:
My hon. Friend is quite right. As part of the review and the White Paper on lifelong learning to which I referred, we shall come back with proposals for helping part-time students.
I say to everyone who criticises what we are doing, "Where were you when 500,000 part-time students had no support at all? Where were you for the 2 million adults in further education who have had to pay fees? Where were you in those inequities and injustices?" I agree with my hon. Friend that we must grasp the issues together.
Mr. Don Foster (Bath):
We echo the Secretary of State's thanks and congratulations to Sir Ron Dearing and his team, and join the right hon. Gentleman in his belief that there is an urgent need to increase the resources available for higher education, to raise quality, to extend and widen access, and, as he rightly said, to provide more support for part-time students. That is particularly necessary after the 40 per cent. cut in funding per student in higher education in the previous Conservative Government's lifetime. It certainly ill behoves the shadow Secretary of State to talk about "picking a pocket or two". The Conservatives certainly did in relation to higher education.
Is the Secretary of State nevertheless aware that we remain to be convinced of the need to introduce tuition fees for those who currently do not pay them? Although we recognise that there is a need for students to contribute more to higher education, we believe that it can be done by the conversion of the mandatory grant into a means-tested loan. Combined with additional support from employers and the state, that could meet all the Secretary of State's aspirations.
"The proposals will mean more money for universities."
The vice-chancellors, academic staffs and student bodies of British universities want to know from the Secretary of State this afternoon how much money he is promising them, or is it simply another vague promise that will be delivered some time or never?
"For lower-income families, instead of the remaining grant . . . costs will be covered by a maintenance loan".
It is in black and white. It is a one-off hit of an extra £5,000, which has to be found by lower-income students and their families. That is the right hon. Gentleman's policy: extra state guaranteed loans for well-off young people from Islington and a kick in the teeth for low-income families from Sheffield. It was a policy that was specifically examined and specifically rejected by Sir Ron Dearing and his committee, because it was thought to be inequitable and inconsistent with the objective that the right hon. Gentleman set out at the beginning of his statement--that of widening access.
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