§ Mr. Don FosterTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations have been made by his Department regarding the censorship at Skyline College in the United Arab Emirates referred to in the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education report 1998. [79941]
§ Mr. MudieThe Department has not made any representations on this issue, but we believe that universities-should always consider the ethical dimension of their activities.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) conducts a programme of audits of institutions' overseas partnerships, and we are aware of the QAA audit report about the quality assurance arrangements of the collaborative partnership between the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside and Skyline College, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. We note that the QAA has asked the University to examine without delay the possible implications of restrictions in learning materials, which may be excluding its students from a body of scholarship on grounds of authors' race or creed.