Our university revolution has only just begun

By David Willetts

In a survey of mothers who had recently given birth, 97 per cent of respondents said they expected their child to go to university. Across the world, people want to learn and to raise their skills. That’s why so many people are still applying for university. But it’s not just university. This Government has also delivered a 65 per cent increase in apprenticeship starts. The OECD says one of the most important factors determining the long-term growth rate is how many people have gone through higher education or have higher-level skills.

 

Despite some dire warnings about the Coalition’s student finance reforms, we’ve already had more applications to university than in any year under the previous government. Once the decline in the total number of 18 year olds has been accounted for, their application rate is down only 1 per cent on last year, when a record number of people applied to get in. We’ve sent recent graduates into 2,000 schools and colleges to explain that maintenance grants are being increased and monthly repayments after graduation are being reduced. Simon Hughes, the Coalition’s Advocate on Access, has really helped us to get the message across. Already, more people have applied to start university in 2012 than there are places available. So yet again it will be very competitive.

 

The Ucas numbers also show that applications from young people with disadvantaged backgrounds have held steady. They fell by just 0.2 per cent on last year’s all-time high. There has admittedly been a slight decline among young people from more affluent households, but more than half of 18 year olds from wealthy backgrounds apply to university compared to fewer than 20 per cent of those from poorer backgrounds. So there is no evidence that middle-class applicants are being penalised.

 

Nonetheless, there is little room for complacency. The Ucas figures do show a decline in applications from older people. The figures only cover full-time courses and those already in work may have been attracted to the more generous support on offer for part-time study. People may be more reluctant to give up work in order to study given the current labour market. Either way, we need to monitor carefully how the new regime is working for students and institutions. We have just confirmed that our preferred candidate to become the Director for Fair Access is Les Ebdon, the vice chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, which has a good record on attracting learners of all backgrounds.

 

Once the dust has settled on this week’s figures, I hope universities will focus on what they tell us about student choice. Our higher education reforms are designed above all to put students in their proper place – at the heart of the system. We want the best possible match between students and universities. That is why we have improved the information available, including on the employment outcomes of different courses at different universities. Prospective students are becoming more discriminating.

 

We are also liberating universities from restrictive number controls so that they can respond to the shifts in demand. Successful institutions are now free to thrive like never before. In 2012/13, they may recruit as many students with good A-level results as they can without risk of censure or fines. With one single step, we have liberated Oxbridge and other research-intensive institutions from controls on their student numbers. Now the ball is in their court. We intend to liberate further places in future years.

 

Applicants are responding to all this change by asking more searching questions of institutions. That explains why there are large changes in the application figures for individual institutions and individual courses within the overall total. Those institutions that succeed are likely to be those that are more accountable to their students.

 

Already, a huge rationalisation of courses is underway at London Metropolitan University to reflect student demand better. Manchester University is putting a new focus on the level of contact their students have with academics. And universities throughout the sector are seeking to engage more with employers, so that their students become more employable.

 

Our higher education White Paper outlined the case for going further. In particular, there is a clear understanding that we need to sort out the regulatory mess that we inherited from the last government. On the one hand, private providers can rightly get degree-awarding powers and their students can access grants and loans. On the other hand, under Labour these institutions did not need to provide information on how they are spending public money and were exempt from the fair access regime.

 

Our reforms offer an opening to new providers, with all institutions accessing public money on a level playing field. This is important for three reasons. First, the history of higher education in Britain is the story of new providers offering more choice to match the pattern of people’s lives. When UCL began, it was denounced by Coleridge as a “mere lecture bazaar”. On this, the great man was wrong.

 

Second, new providers can drive improvements, including efficiencies, throughout the whole of higher education – as with our free schools policy, a rising tide lifts all boats.

 

Third, we want British institutions to be at the forefront of the globalisation of higher education because, despite the prestige of our universities, we are at risk of being overtaken by other countries. I have recently asked for proposals for a new privately financed higher education campus, like Mayor Bloomberg did successfully in New York.

 

We also need to finish what we have started. That means even better information for prospective students, a new student champion role for the university funding council and clearer opportunities for students to complain when things go wrong. It is not until 2014/15 that the new student finance system reaches maturity, covering all students on regular three-year degrees. So that remains the Coalition’s target date for getting our reforms in place. Telegraph