Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that universities develop courses in consultation with industry professionals to enable graduates to develop adequate skills for the workplace.

It is important that universities focus on ensuring that their graduates have the skills needed, including technical, vocational and transferable skills, to gain a positive outcome from their degree. The primary aim of the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator, is to ensure that higher education delivers positive outcomes for students and that it has a regulatory focus to ensure that students are able to progress into employment or further study.

Collaboration between universities and business is increasingly important, both in the development of work-ready, highly skilled graduates and in contributing to local and regional economic growth. There is already a strong track record of collaboration. For example, Teesside University’s Digital City innovation initiative is helping local small and medium-sized enterprises to place graduate interns in their businesses by providing recruitment support and a 50% contribution towards their salary.

The government is supporting greater collaboration between businesses and universities in a number of ways:

• The OfS, through its Industrial Strategy and Skills Challenge Competition is funding providers (including in collaboration with employers) to develop and implement projects to improve outcomes for graduates who seek employment in their home region. Details of which can be found here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/ofs-challenge-competition-industrial-strategy-and-skills-support-for-local-students-and-graduates/.

• Similarly, the UK Research and Innovation 'Strength in Places Fund' is a competitive fund for collaborative bids between research institutions and businesses to support significant regional growth through research and innovation. Details can be found here: https://www.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/strength-in-places-fund/.

• The OfS is providing £20 million for the Institute of Coding which will target a skills gap in digital skills and involves collaboration between education providers and industry. This includes working together to create core content and introducing flexible ways to learn.

• The government also partially funds the National Centre for Universities and Business which promotes, develops and supports university and business collaboration across the UK.

It is important to remember, however, that universities are autonomous institutions and, as such, that they are responsible for the courses that they develop and that the government does not prescribe that certain content needs to be included.