Higher Education: Financial Sustainability

Lord Hannay of Chiswick Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, the figure for accepted entrants as of August 2014 was up by 4% and that for mature students was up by 6%. In terms of postgraduate funding, your Lordships will know that loans of up to £10,000 will be available from 2016-17. Indeed, in 2012 the Government introduced non-means-testing for loans for part-time students of 25% or more of the full-time equivalent.

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister not recognise that her original Answer sounded rather like someone sitting in the back of a canoe facing upstream just before going over a very large waterfall? Can she perhaps say something about financial sustainability, which she has not covered very fully? In particular, 45 modern languages schools in British universities closed in recent years on the grounds that they were not financially sustainable. Does that leave the Government calm or worried?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I do not recognise the words “canoe”, “upstream” or “waterfall” mentioned in that question. According to the OECD, we are one of the few nations to have introduced a system of sustainable higher education finance. Indeed, our numbers of students are up to record levels at nearly half a million.