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Written Question
Department for Education: Written Questions
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to respond to Question 17725 on Academic Freedom tabled by the hon. Member for Sheffield Central on 8 March 2024.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

A response was published to the hon. Member for Sheffield Central to Question 17725 on 21st March 2024.


Written Question
Academic Freedom
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with the Office for Students on ensuring that the forthcoming guidance for higher education providers on (a) securing free speech within the law and (b) publishing and maintaining a freedom of speech code of practice is published before 1 August 2024.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The remaining provisions of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will come into force in two phases. The main provisions of the Act, introducing free speech duties on higher education providers, constituent institutions and students' unions, and the new complaints scheme, will come into force on 1 August 2024. The Office for Students (OfS) has already launched two consultations that will feed into new complaints scheme rules and guidance for students’ unions on the OfS’s approach to regulating them. These will be published before the 1 August 2024.

The second phase involves provisions relating to new conditions of registration on providers and monitoring of overseas funding. These will come into force on 1 September 2025.

The OfS expects to consult shortly on the proposed revisions to the regulatory framework, including on its approach to the recovery of costs, as well as on more detailed guidance on securing free speech within the law and on maintaining a free speech code of practice. The OfS consultations are not yet live, and the OfS will require time to run the consultation, analyse the results and publish a response before they can publish the guidance to which they relate. Precise timings on the publication of guidance are a matter for the OfS.


Written Question
Overseas Students
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of ending funding for the UK Council for International Student Affairs on the adequacy of support available to international students.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The government appreciates the significant economic and cultural contribution that international students make to UK higher education.

The government remains committed to the ambitions set out in its International Education Strategy, including the aim to host 600,000 international students in the UK per year by 2030. The government is proud to have met this ambition two years running.

Universities also offer a range of dedicated support to their international students before they arrive in the UK, on arrival and during their studies. Organisations such as the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) and the British Council continue to provide information to international students entering the UK.


Written Question
Teachers: Workplace Pensions
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional financial support to higher education institutions to help meet the cost of the teachers’ pension scheme.

Answered by Robert Halfon

Higher education providers (HEPs) are autonomous bodies, and the government does not fund the cost of changes to the scheme for them in the same way as for schools and colleges. The department expects HEPs to continue to adapt to uncertainties and financial risks to protect their longer-term sustainability.

The government will continue to work with the higher education sector to explore how it can best support those providers affected, including planning effectively for implementation. The department is also keen to maintain an ongoing dialogue with HEPs.


Written Question
Universities: Finance
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that funding allocated to universities for teaching for 2024-25 sufficiently enables institutions to support their students.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) is funding which is supplied by the government on an annual basis to support teaching and students in higher education (HE). This funding also includes subjects that are expensive to deliver, such as science and engineering, students who are at risk of discontinuing their studies, and world-leading specialist providers.

​The department is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding over the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25. This is to support high-quality teaching and facilities including funding for science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in over a decade.

In the 2023/24 financial year, over half of the total £1,454 million SPG recurrent funding budget is being directed towards the provision of high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy (for example, medicine and dentistry), science, engineering, and technology subjects, and specific labour market needs.

There is also £276 million of Student Premium and mental health funding available this academic year, 2023/24, to support students who need additional help, including disadvantaged students. This funding complements the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. The department is now making a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. It will continue to liaise with the Office for Students on the impacts of cost-of-living pressures.

Over the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25, the department is also providing £450 million in capital funding to invest in teaching and learning facilities which meet the government’s strategic priorities.

The next SPG allocations will be announced ahead of the 2024/25 academic year.


Written Question
Universities: Finance
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that funding allocated to universities for teaching for 2024-25 enables institutions to provide high quality education that meets national skills needs.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) is funding which is supplied by the government on an annual basis to support teaching and students in higher education (HE). This funding also includes subjects that are expensive to deliver, such as science and engineering, students who are at risk of discontinuing their studies, and world-leading specialist providers.

​The department is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding over the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25. This is to support high-quality teaching and facilities including funding for science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in over a decade.

In the 2023/24 financial year, over half of the total £1,454 million SPG recurrent funding budget is being directed towards the provision of high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy (for example, medicine and dentistry), science, engineering, and technology subjects, and specific labour market needs.

There is also £276 million of Student Premium and mental health funding available this academic year, 2023/24, to support students who need additional help, including disadvantaged students. This funding complements the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. The department is now making a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. It will continue to liaise with the Office for Students on the impacts of cost-of-living pressures.

Over the three-year period from 2022/23 to 2024/25, the department is also providing £450 million in capital funding to invest in teaching and learning facilities which meet the government’s strategic priorities.

The next SPG allocations will be announced ahead of the 2024/25 academic year.


Written Question
Higher Education: Finance
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the report entitled Financial Sustainability of the UK Higher Education sector, published in January 2024.

Answered by Robert Halfon

This response assumes that the report referenced is PwC’s UK Higher Education (HE) Financial Sustainability Report, which was commissioned by Universities UK. Departmental officials have met with Universities UK to discuss the findings of this report.

The PwC report cites similar risks to those identified by the Office for Students (OfS), which is the independent regulator of HE in England responsible for monitoring the financial sustainability of registered HE providers. The latest report by the OfS on the financial health of the sector, which was published in May 2023, can be accessed at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/0b7d9daa-d6c7-477e-a0b2-b90985d0f935/financial-sustainability-report-2023-updated-june-2023.pdf

The department continues to work closely with the OfS, HE representative bodies and other government departments, as appropriate, to understand the financial sustainability of the sector.

In the aforementioned OfS report on the financial health of the HE sector, the OfS stated that the overall aggregate financial position of the sector is sound. However, there continues to be significant variation between individual providers, both across the sector and within peer groups.

The department consistently assesses the potential implications for any policies that could impact the HE sector, including financially, and particularly with respect to the interests of students.

It is important to note that HE providers are autonomous and, as such, it is for them to decide effective business models in order to adapt to financial risks. All HE providers should be stress testing their financial plans to ensure they are fit for purpose and that they do not rely on optimism around student recruitment.


Written Question
Overseas Students: Surcharges
Monday 4th September 2023

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of increasing the cost of (a) the immigration health surcharge and (b) student visas on (i) the international student target within the International Education Strategy.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has been successful in delivering our International Education Strategy ambition of hosting at least 600,000 students per year by 2030 for the last two years, and the government fully expects the UK to continue to be an attractive destination for international students.

The department is increasing fees across a range of immigration routes, including for people coming here to live, work and study, at a time of record high migration numbers. It is the government’s policy that those who use and benefit most from the immigration system should contribute towards the cost of operating the system, reducing the burden on the UK taxpayer.

The government’s visa fees are competitive globally and there is little evidence that fee increases to date have significantly affected demand on work, study and tourism routes.


Written Question
Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023
Friday 7th July 2023

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to bring the provisions of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 into force.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department is working closely with the Office for Students (OfS) to determine when provisions of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will come into force.

The timeline will involve working in collaboration with the OfS on the creation of new registration conditions and a complaints scheme dedicated to handling freedom of speech complaints, which will be operated by the OfS. The OfS will also develop guidance on how to comply with these duties, in consultation with providers, constituent institutions and students’ unions.


Written Question
Students: Finance
Monday 27th March 2023

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has taken steps to produce an updated version of the Student Income and Expenditure Survey.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The Student Income and Expenditure Survey (SIES) 2021 to 2022 has been commissioned and the report will be published in due course.

The last published SIES survey (2014 to 2015) can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/student-income-and-expenditure-survey-2014-to-2015.