§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will meet the proposals for additional funding of higher education proposed by the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education for each of the years 1998–99, 1999–2000 and 2000–01. [39147]
§ Dr. HowellsI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Angus (Mr. Welsh) on 24 February 1998,Official Report, column 200.
§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if he will introduce measures to prevent further and higher education institutions that receive the majority of their income from public funds from unilaterally downgrading staff to reduce budgets; [39019]
(2) what plans he has to introduce measures to prevent the use of waiver clauses which remove the rights of employees to redundancy or unfair dismissal claims, in the contracts of academic staff at publicly funded FE and HE institutions. [39020]
§ Dr. HowellsFurther and Higher Education Institutions are independent bodies. It is therefore for each institution to take decisions on internal organisation and management including the grading of staff and the form of their contracts. We do, however, expect institutions to work in partnership with their employees: as my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, has made clear in"The Learning Age", a confrontational management style is not acceptable in publicly funded bodies.