HC Deb 14 February 2003 vol 400 cc149-51W
Gregory Barker

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what initiatives are being undertaken by his Department to develop links between higher education colleges and commerce; and if he will make a statement. [96660]

Margaret Hodge

In order to improve our economic competitiveness, we need to create effective and sustained links between higher education institutions and business. The task for Government is to provide the framework for this to happen and for universities and higher education colleges, businesses and individuals to develop these opportunities. As set out in the recent White Paper, 'The future of higher education' the Government are taking a number of steps to build constructive links between higher education institutions and business.

The effective transfer of knowledge and skills is key to our future success. Through recent initiatives we have already helped institutions to improve knowledge transfer, and this has been shown in indicators such as the number of spin-off companies created, the number of patents filed and the proportion of universities employing specialised staff to support commercial work. We announced in "Investing in Innovation", the low achieving ethnic groups; proportion of children of families in receipt of working families tax credit (WFTC); and proportion of children of low birth weight.

Government's strategy for science, engineering and technology, published in July 2002 that the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) would draw together support for reach out from HE to business and become a permanent third stream of funding worth £90 million a year in 2005–06. As announced in 'the future of higher education' we are providing additional HEIF funding to establish a network of up to 20 Knowledge Exchanges. These will exemplify collaboration with employers, be focused on serving the local and regional economy and form part of a wider network with the New Technology Institutes that will help local companies to use advanced technology.

The Foundation Degree which was introduced in 2001 gave employers a greater role in shaping vocational courses to meet their need for associate professional skills. A major expansion of this work focused degree announced in the HE strategy will further encourage partnership arrangements between employers and higher education institutions in course design, development and implementation. The emergence of new Sector Skills Councils will enable stronger alliances to develop between business in their sectors and the relevant departments in higher education institutions both to develop and market courses and involve employers in the delivery of learning.

However, we also need to ensure that all graduates have the skills to equip them to work in a fast changing work environment. We will continue to sponsor work already under way by HEFCE to integrate the skills and attributes which employers need, into higher education courses.

The Government have commissioned Richard Lambert to carry out an independent review of how, over the coming decade, business can better draw on universities to the mutual advantage of both sectors. We look forward to the findings of the review later this year.