HC Deb 29 April 2004 vol 420 cc998-9
9. Mr. Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland)(LD)

What progress has been made in reaching a 50 per cent. participation rate in higher education. [169213]

The Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education (Alan Johnson)

The provisional higher education initial participation rate for 2002–03, released earlier this month, is 44 per cent. This represents a rise of one percentage point on the 2001–02 figure of 43 per cent.

Mr. Carmichael

I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. He will be aware that the 50 per cent. target has been met north of the border, where his Labour colleagues in the Scottish Executive, with a little help and encouragement from my colleagues, have already abolished tuition fees and reintroduced student grants. In fact, in the first year following the abolition and reintroduction, the increase in applications to Scottish universities was some 10 per cent., compared with 1 per cent. in England and Wales. In the light of that evidence, does the Minister believe that trebling student tuition fees in England and Wales will help the Government to meet their 50 per cent. target?

Alan Johnson

There are many excellent things about Scottish higher education, one of which is that is has always had a higher participation rate. Another is that there has always been very good collaboration between higher and further education. There is a myth that, after the Cubie report, Scotland abolished up-front fees. Every student in Scotland—barring certain categories—will pay about £2,100 after they have graduated, on an income-contingent basis—

Mr. Carmichael

That is a contribution.

Alan Johnson

The contribution is apparently towards the grant. We provide the grant free; the contribution is towards the teaching, so I do not accept that argument.

My final point is that the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service figures released yesterday showed a 66 per cent. increase in the number of UK applications for foundation degrees. A large part of our expansion up to 50 per cent. participation will come from two-year vocational foundation degrees, and there has already been a very healthy increase in applications for such courses, so I do not believe that our proposals will affect our drive towards the 50 per cent. rate.

Jeff Ennis (Barnsley, East and Mexborough) (Lab)

My question is on the very point that we need to expand the base of foundation degrees to achieve that target of 50 per cent. Will the Minister say a little more about the response that he is getting from local universities and industry to achieve that massive expansion in foundation degrees?

Alan Johnson

I welcome my hon. Friend's long-standing interest in this issue. We are getting a good response from employers and from higher education institutions—I refer to higher education institutions rather than universities because it is FE colleges that in the main provide foundation degrees accredited by universities. The response is very good, and particularly good when one considers the fact that these degrees are very new—the first batch of graduates came through only last summer. The UCAS figures show that interest will expand, and our role is to make sure that people, particularly youngsters, are aware of this route into an accredited degree. We all have a role, however, to support one of the most exciting initiatives that we have seen in this country, and to end the strange prejudice that there has always been in favour of academic qualifications over vocational ones, which has dogged British academia for too long.