Higher Education White Paper

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Tuesday 28th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

There is a lot of important information that we think prospective students should have, ranging from the contact hours through to the employment prospects at the end of a course. We think that such information should be widely available. Which? has given a clear indication that it will deploy the information and help prospective students to assess it.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

According to the House of Commons Library, there is a funding gap of between £600 million and £1 billion as a result of the mistakes the Minister has made. Are the Government not going too far and too fast on higher education, as on so much else? Is it not true that quality will suffer from his attempts to deal with the funding gap, as we have heard from my hon. Friends? To use his own words, that will be “unfair to students, to universities and to the country.”

[Mr Willetts]

There is no such funding gap, we are not going too far and too fast, and there is no threat to quality.