University plans 'will widen access'

Business secretary Lord Mandelson has outlined government plans for higher education over the next decade. Skip related content

In a statement in the Lords yesterday he said the sector needed to make an even bigger contribution to growth.

"There should be no artificial caps on talent," he told peers.

Lord Mandelson said all students must continue to be selected on merit and the government would look at ways of improving access to the best universities.

Universities will be asked to focus on skills areas where the supply of graduates is not meeting demand.

But he emphasised that no decision had yet been taken on changes to the limits on tuition fees.

Launching the framework document, Higher ambitions - the future of universities in a knowledge economy, Lord Mandelson said in the past decade, the delivery of the twin objectives of widening access and creating excellence had been achieved.

"This demonstrates that wider opportunity is not the enemy of excellence, as opponents of change have alleged," he told peers.

"But new times and new conditions require some fresh policy choices and judgments.

"The coming decade will see public expenditure inevitably more constrained.

"Attracting the best students and researchers will become more competitive."

He said the top priority of government was to restore economic growth, and universities had to make an "even stronger contribution to this goal".

Ministers also wanted to strengthen the role of universities in their communities and regions as well as in the wider world, continuing their current role in local economic development.

In the Commons, higher education minister David Lammy made the same announcement.

He told MPs the arts and humanities also enriched the country - but science had fallen behind so much prior to 1997 that a Save British Science campaign had been launched.

He said the government would also make an announcement about the structure of tuition fees shortly.

Shadow skills secretary David Willetts warned Lammy about "flirting" with contextual data for university admissions.

Willets noted the "excellent" initiatives such as that run by Kings College London to help poorer children study medicine.

"Students and their parents will lose confidence in the integrity of the university admission system if it is used for crude class warfare," he warned.

Willetts also called for strong incentives for good teaching, in particular warning that efforts to promote 'stem' subjects such as science should not hamper the arts and humanities.

"Do you recognise that a dynamic and well-balanced economy needs to draw on the dynamism and research capacity of university departments in the arts and humanities as well as those in stem subjects?" Willetts asked.

Lammy responded that it was not a case of "either/or" in terms of funding for stem subjects and the arts.

Dismissing "class warfare" allegations he said: "You know that university and attending university is about attainment, it's about aptitude and it's about potential.

"But what we know, for students from poorer backgrounds is that sometimes that potential is thwarted."

Liberal Democrat spokeswoman Lorely Burt said the forthcoming funding review should not be used to raise tuition fees.

"Of course students have the right to have high expectations, but that must not be used as an excuse to raise fees," she said.

She added that "worst of all" was the confirmation that the funding review would not be reported until after the next election.

"Such collusion between the official opposition and the government will only fuel suspicion that the two parties are set to raise fees, doing nothing for widening participation and driving up social mobility in this country," Burt warned.

Lammy accused the Liberal Democrats of holding a constantly changing position on the issue, "flip-flopping" over tuition fees.