Higher Education

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, Britain’s universities remain a jewel in our crown. It is enormously to the credit of academics that it is so, considering the headwinds against which they are struggling. They have been casualties of the Government’s chronic mismanagement of the economy, as well as their peculiar unwillingness to invest in education. When you have such precious assets as 25 universities in the world’s top 200, you should treasure them. When your universities are essential for imparting the intellectual skills needed in the workforce of the future, you should invest in them without being paralysed by arbitrary fiscal rules.

Improving skills is one of the Government’s levelling-up missions, yet higher education is only a shadowy presence in the policy. That is bizarre. Universities are major economic presences in their communities and regions. They are important sources of employment. They are partners for business in teaching, research and innovation. They are routes for social mobility and cultural beacons. Without their existence, the plight of post-industrial areas would have been even worse. We cannot claim that universities are the solution to Britain’s productivity problem—productivity remains stubbornly poor—but the productivity challenge is multifaceted, and improving skills is only one part of what is needed.

The Government think they can get away with making students shoulder too much of the cost of the university system. They shifted the weighting of funding substantially from taxpayer-funded grants provided by funding bodies to tuition fees to be repaid by students via the loan system. Then, in 2017, they froze tuition fees for domestic students, which accounted for half the funding of universities, at £9,250. They are still frozen at that level, albeit that since then universities have faced large rises in energy costs, borrowing costs and general inflation. In 2022 the NAO found that the proportion of HE providers with an in-year deficit had increased from 5% in 2015-16 to 32% in 2019-20. The IFS has reported that spending on teaching resources per student was 18% lower in 2022-23 than in 2012-13. We are in an unsustainable situation whereby the level of fees is insufficient to fund tuition in many disciplines, yet it is seen as a poor and even unaffordable deal for many home students.

The unpredictability of the student loan system is a worry for students and for observers of the national finances alike. We know that a significant proportion of loans will not be repaid. Meanwhile, many graduates are experiencing hardship, having subsidised courses other than their own and now, with the interest rate as high as 7%, effectively paying high marginal tax rates over longer periods. I hear increasingly of clever young people who ought to have a university education saying to themselves that the financial implications mean it is not worth while. If the Government are looking for a reasonable concession to the junior doctors and a way to recruit more nurses, they could consider a scheme of loan forgiveness.

The frantic recruitment of international students has been the consequence of freezing tuition fees for domestic students. Although there is great merit in our universities attracting outstanding students from around the world, it is a different matter when they are driven by fiscal pressure to resort to flogging degrees to foreign students, charging shamelessly high fees and, in some instances, debasing academic standards through dubious agency and franchising arrangements. With the changes to the visa rules for dependants this January, the Home Office has made it harder for them to attract international students, and numbers are already tumbling.

Not all the woes of our universities have been visited on them by the Government; some are self-inflicted. Most worrying is the tendency to suppress freedom of speech, and the witch hunts against academics who hold views on, for example, gender issues or the history of empire that are considered by other academics to be heretical. Such attitudes and behaviours are contrary to the proper idea of a university, and feeble academic leadership should not allow them to prevail. Universities should rise higher than the street fascists. If a university is not a place where students and scholars are confident to explore and put forward ideas that may be unfashionable or unpopular, it is not only liberal education that is at risk but liberal society and liberal politics. It also weakens the willingness of the taxpayer to invest in such institutions and the economic and social benefits that they can confer.

Schools

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I entirely agree with my noble friend’s point that the academic and the vocational routes should be equally valued. All pupils should have a basic grounding in academic subjects such as English, maths, science et cetera, but there is no doubt that we need to do more to improve vocational education in this country.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, at a time when, surely, the great challenge for political leadership is to unify a country which the Brexit vote exposed as being deeply divided by age, class, region, skills, income and wealth, the Prime Minister is insisting on introducing this most divisive of policies. The Government say that their concern is for ordinary, working-class people. Will the Minister acknowledge that the evidence we have indicates that although the policy could be beneficial to some of the 20% of children who may have the aptitude to qualify for grammar school education, it will clearly be to the detriment of other schools in areas where the new grammar schools are established or existing grammar schools are expanded, and to the detriment of the interests of the 80% of the nation’s children who will not go to a grammar school?

[Lord Nash]

I invite the noble Lord to read the consultation document carefully. There are some very well thought out plans there as to how we believe we can ensure that this has a much wider benefit, particularly for less advantaged pupils. Just because something has not worked in the past does not mean that something with the same kind of principles cannot work in the future. We are determined, as I have said, not to go back to the previous, binary divide.

Children: Drugs

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Monday 11th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Meacher]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to help local authorities fulfil their statutory obligation to safeguard children with respect to preventing the use of controlled drugs.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, on behalf of the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, and at her request, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in her name on the Order Paper.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Lord Nash) (Con)]

My Lords, nothing is more important than keeping children safe from harm, including from drugs. The Children Act 1989 places a duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Social workers assess children’s needs and work with other agencies to provide help and support to meet those needs. Reducing drug misuse is a key part of our evidence-based drug strategy. Education plays an important role in supporting children to make healthy choices.

[Lord Howarth of Newport]

My Lords, I welcome the sentiment uttered by the Minister. However, is he aware of the testimony of the charity Mentor to the Home Affairs Select Committee:

“We are spending the vast majority of the money we do spend on drug education on programmes that don’t work”?

Given the very serious risks for young people exposed to unscrupulous drug dealers, should the Government not rise to their proper responsibility and ensure that the evidence-based and effective drug education programmes that do exist are provided for every child in every school?

[Lord Nash]

Drug education is a statutory part of the new curriculum for science at key stages 2 and 3. Teachers are best placed to understand the needs of their pupils and it is for them to develop their own PSHE programmes, drawing on resources and evidence-based tools such as ADEPIS, which provides accurate, up-to-date information and resource on what works. In March last year, we published a PSHE review of what works best in drug education and the PSHE Association has an excellent programme of study on drugs.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Nash]

The noble Baroness makes an extremely good point. Certainly, this is something I have seen on a number of occasions. Last month we launched a new campaign—“Together, we can tackle child abuse”—to encourage members of the public to report child abuse and neglect and just this kind of situation. I hope this has some effect on the point the noble Baroness makes.

[Lord Howarth of Newport]

My Lords, will the Minister enlarge on the obligations on teachers in schools that are not required to deliver the national curriculum, and the Government’s expectations of them?

[Lord Nash]

All teachers are required to keep their children safe. Our expectations are just the same across all schools.

Schools: Substance Abuse Education

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Monday 2nd February 2015 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Howarth of Newport]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to improve teaching in schools about the dangers of substance abuse.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)]

My Lords, drugs education is a statutory part of the new national curriculum for science. Pupils should be taught about the effects of recreational drugs, including substance misuse, on behaviour, health and life processes. Provision in this area can be further strengthened through PSHE education. To support teachers, we have provided funding to the drug and alcohol information service Mentor-ADEPIS to produce resources and guidance.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that evidence was given to the Home Affairs Select Committee that most schools provide drug education on just one occasion in the school year, or even less? Is he aware that the charity Mentor said:

“We are spending the vast majority of the money we do spend on drug education on programmes that don’t work”?

Is he aware that his department told the committee that it did not monitor the programmes and resources that schools use to support their teaching in this very important area? What steps have been taken since the publication of the Select Committee’s report to improve this state of affairs, and does he agree that very much more needs to be done if Education Ministers are to fulfil their proper responsibility to help to protect young people against the dangers of substance abuse in general and the consumption of drugs in particular?

[Lord Nash]

Ofsted tells us that the drugs education in schools is good. There are a great many charities working with schools, not necessarily during formal curriculum time. Attendance is at an all-time high at schools. Absence has fallen substantially. We have strengthened the national curriculum to cater for more drugs education.

Education: Citizenship

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Wednesday 14th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I can assure the noble Baroness that we have an active programme of co-operation with the Home Office to ensure that these matters are covered and that young people are not subject to radicalisation.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that education for democracy should not merely be about the mechanics of the political and governmental system, but should permeate the curriculum extensively? For example, the study of literature should assist young people to discern whether language is being used with integrity and should illuminate the nature of responsible choice. Does the Minister also agree that good teachers understand this very well, but that teachers in all schools need the professional autonomy, encouragement and practical scope to use that understanding in their own way?

Schools: Classics

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Thursday 27th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

My noble friend refers to an excellent programme, which I would like to hear more about. I hope that, after the election, there will be a further round of independent/state school partnerships, which have been promoted by this Government. I would welcome an application in that regard.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as having spent a disproportionate amount of my childhood studying Latin and Greek. Is it not obvious that learning to decline the pluperfect subjunctive and to tell the difference between a gerund and a gerundive is a good preparation for modern life and that study of the classics may indeed enable citizens to know what the plural is of “referendum”—whether it is “referendums” or “referenda” or neither?

[Lord Nash]

Ita vero.

Schools: Free Schools

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Wednesday 14th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

Or, worse, the situation that we have in Wales. The party opposite seems to have gone remarkably quiet on free schools recently and I can only assume therefore that, reluctantly, qui tacet consentire.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister point out to his noble friends Lord Forsyth of Drumlean and Lord Hamilton of Epsom that there is another 12 months to go before the election and that they are getting prematurely overexcited. Does he agree that in this House at least we should try to sustain an intelligent conversation for as much as possible of the next 12 months?

[Lord Nash]

I take note of the noble Lord’s point. I think it is very unlikely that my two noble friends to whom he referred would ever get prematurely overexcited. However, I note the point that he makes on timing.

Schools: Independent Schools

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

If one had such a scheme, I think there might be ways of avoiding that. I agree entirely that we should be increasing social mobility for all pupils. Although the independent sector does a fantastic job, according to the Sutton Trust, which promotes the open access scheme, its 7% of pupils get 50% of the top jobs. Pupils from grammar schools, which educate 5% of the population, get more than 20% of the top jobs. We are focused on ensuring that the 90% of children who go to other schools, who currently get only somewhere between 25% and 30% of those jobs, get a much higher share of that take in the future.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

Does the noble Lord agree that, if the parents of the 7% of the nation’s children who attend independent schools were to apply their zeal for educational excellence to the maintained sector, we would see a vast improvement in social cohesion and educational performance?

[Lord Nash]

The noble Lord makes a very good point; that may be the case. If the Labour Party had abolished state education, that would have happened, but we are where we are. We have an excellent independent sector and we should learn from it and collaborate with it.

Schools: Curriculum

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

All good schools seek to develop their children’s character through a PSHE programme. We do not feel that the programme should be legislated for in its content. Circumstances of the different schools and pupils in them vary greatly, and we should leave it for teachers to decide exactly the approach that they take.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, given that the charity Mentor said, to cite the Home Affairs Select Committee report, Breaking the Cycle:

“We are spending the vast majority of the money we do spend on drug education on programmes that don’t work”,

and given that his department said it does not monitor the programmes or resources that schools use to support their teaching, is the Minister content with such a casual and laissez-faire approach on the part of the Government in an area where young people are so vulnerable?

[Lord Nash]

The noble Lord implies that casual equals laissez-faire; we do not accept that. As I said, we accept that most schools should do what all good schools do, which is to have an active programme of promoting their children’s interest, including drugs education, which they must be taught about in science classes anyway. Often, the best way to engage those pupils with those difficult issues, such as forced marriages or gangs, is not for teachers to do that—they often will not open up to their teachers—but for outside agencies and charities with skilled people in those difficult areas to talk to them about that.

Children: Speech and Language

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Tuesday 29th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, I know that the noble Lord has vast experience in education and I am grateful for his question. We are sharing widely the good practice in the better communications research where speech and language therapists work with teachers and teaching assistants to provide support. He is absolutely right about a divergence in provision around the country and the shortage of funds, but it must be for local authorities and their partners to assess local needs and to make better use of resources so that they are directed where they are needed. Our proposal for a local offer will do this and will put parents and young people at the heart of decisions.

[Lord Howarth of Newport]

My Lords, the Minister told us just now that the Department of Health and the Department for Education are working closely together in this area. With respect, for many years the two departments have claimed to be working closely together but when it comes to determining who pays for what, they have been quite unable to agree. Can the noble Lord assure us that he will personally use his own best endeavours to ensure that, in future, there is a proper complementarity of responsibilities in terms of how the funding is found for special needs education and for speech therapy in particular?

[Lord Nash]

I thank the noble Lord for his question, and he is absolutely right about the poor record in cross-departmental work, particularly in this area. I shall investigate the matter and write to him further about it. I think he will be pleased with what he sees in the forthcoming Bill on this.