"My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, for raising this subject. In my two years in this place and in this job, it has become very obvious to me that there is nothing that the House of Lords likes more than a debate about higher education, perhaps because …..." Baroness Smith of Malvern - View Speech
"The first thing that indexation of tuition fee caps needs is political will from a Government. It was a lack of that political will that meant that they were frozen for seven years under the previous Government. We have already taken action, two years in a row, to increase the …..." Baroness Smith of Malvern - View Speech
"Of course, the income-contingent nature of student loan repayments means that those on lower incomes are protected. They have been further protected by this Government’s raising of the threshold two years in a row. The fact that 30% of student loans will never be repaid and will be subsidised by …..." Baroness Smith of Malvern - View Speech
"We acknowledge the challenges that are facing higher education providers. While the providers are independent of government and responsible for managing their finances, it is this Government who have acted to secure a financial future for our world-leading higher education sector. We have increased tuition fee caps in line with …..." Baroness Smith of Malvern - View Speech
"My Lords, I acknowledge my noble friend’s criticisms of plan 2 loans, which were designed by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition. Having said that, in principle, a combination of income-contingent student loans and grants is a fair way to ensure that those who benefit from higher education contribute, while …..." Baroness Smith of Malvern - View Speech
"First, the Office for Students is undertaking a new approach to measuring the quality of what is being provided in our universities. Secondly, we have seen through some of the research published last week the ability to determine what the returns are from individual courses. It is for that reason …..." Baroness Smith of Malvern - View Speech
"My Lords, this Government are taking decisive action to improve the student finance system that we inherited. We are capping interest rates to protect plan 2 and plan 3 borrowers from inflation shocks. We increased the plan 2 repayment threshold twice—its first increases since 2021. We have future-proofed maintenance loans, …..." Baroness Smith of Malvern - View Speech
"I am not sure that I am going to turn the attention of the department to doing that, but I have outlined some of the reasons why I do not think that a graduate tax is the magic bullet that some people believe it might be. Notwithstanding that, I understand …..." Baroness Smith of Malvern - View Speech
"I am sure that the noble Baroness will have seen the data last week from the IFS using LEO data. It identifies those courses which are most likely to bring a positive return for students. It is worth remembering that, after the repayment of student debt, the majority of students …..." Baroness Smith of Malvern - View Speech