§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what evidence he has to indicate that higher education standards need to be raised, as stated in paragraph 1.7 of the Green Paper.
§ Mr. WaldenMy right hon. Friend regards it as axiomatic that all educational institutions should at all times seek to pursue higher standards. Concern for the maintenance and enhancement of standards is reflected in various ways in the volumes published as part of the Leverhulme programme of study into the future of higher education, in the advice on future strategy for higher education published by the University Grants Committee and by the National Advisory Body for Local Authority Higher Education (now the National Advisory Body for Public Sector Higher Education) in September 1984, in the report "Academic Validation in Public Sector Higher Education" (Cmnd 9501) and in the work of the group established by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals on the maintenance and monitoring of academic quality and standards.