Students will no longer be taken for granted by universities - we've made sure of it

Today, hundreds of thousands of young people will receive their A-Level results. I want to congratulate those whose hard work has been recognised. Envelopes opened, there are some big decisions to make. While university may not be the right choice for everyone, including those who want to learn (and earn) on the job through apprenticeships, for example, the proportion of young people on their way to higher education, taking that big step to move away from home to study, is today at a record high.

At the end of June this year, almost 650,000 people had already applied to a UK higher education course, among them a record proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. With our industrial strategy putting science, research and innovation at its very heart and with employers hungry for highly-skilled and capable graduates, it is a great time to be enrolling at our world-leading institutions. Higher education remains a solid investment in your future, with research showing that a university degree can increase an individual’s earning up to £170,000 for men and £250,000 for women.

A degree offers far more than just increased income though. The pursuit of knowledge is the mark of a civilised society. Higher education offers a pathway to countless fulfilling jobs that make our society better, from nursing to industrial design, and from software engineering to teaching. And a good university education broadens horizons, develops life skills beyond study and offers friendships and connections that can last a lifetime.

Going to university will also of course be one of the biggest financial commitments anyone will make in their lifetime, after buying a house and saving towards a pension. Some may be concerned about the cost. I want to reassure them that the way we fund our higher education sector doesn’t just ensure it continues to be world class while remaining sustainable and fair to the taxpayer – it also provides a number of valuable protections for university graduates.

Protections which are impossible for commercial loans to replicate. Borrowers will only ever pay back what they can afford once they are earning a graduate salary – in a system that is best understood as an income-linked and time-limited graduate contribution, rather than a conventional loan. And all outstanding borrowings are written off after 30 years in a conscious investment by the Government in the skills base of our country.

My priority is to ensure students and taxpayers receive value for money from our higher education system. This has been my focus since I became higher education minister in 2015, and it was at the heart of the reforms set out in the Higher Education and Research Act, which was passed earlier this year. These reforms include the establishment of the Office for Students, a new regulator for the university sector. As its name suggests, the OfS will put students at the heart of the system, and will have a duty to promote value for money.

One of its core roles will be to implement the Teaching Excellence Framework and hold universities to account for the quality of their provision. Institutional incentives have up until now led some universities to prioritise research over teaching, leading to patchiness in parts of our system. The new framework corrects this by assessing universities on their student experience, teaching standards, and outcomes for graduates. In the words of Simone Buitendijk, vice-provost for education of Imperial College, the TEF has been “a godsend.”

We are also improving choice in the system by making it easier to set up high quality institutions offering new modes of study such as the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology. For those who want a quicker pace of learning and faster route to the world of work, we are making it easier for universities to offer two-year degrees. And soon we will be introducing student contracts: agreements between students and universities, setting out what students can expect in terms of resource commitments, contact time, assessments, support and other important aspects of their educational experience. By providing students with greater contractual certainty over key aspects of their experience, the OfS will help ensure value for money for students across the higher education system.

So, good luck to everyone getting their results. I wanted to make clear to all those counting on going on to university, I am behind you. I will continue to strive for value for money through our ongoing reforms to the higher education system. This is one of life’s biggest investments and I want to ensure all students receive the intellectually stretching educational experience they deserve.