This wasn't the kind of news that students and universities had been hoping for. Today, Lord Mandelson announced that the Government was cutting funding to universities by some £390 million. This comes only weeks after the Government cut back the Further Education budget. The Government should have remembered that we need a highly skilled workforce to compete in a global marketplace. We are also in the absurd position where universities are being fined for trying to meet Government targets.
As I have blogged previously, the Government has completely failed to widen participation in Higher Education. From 2000 to 2007, we slipped from 3rd to 14th in the OECD league table for university graduation. Now these cuts mean that the Labour Party effectively wants to narrow participation in Higher Education and diminish opportunities for people from working class backgrounds. I couldn't disagree more with their approach.
Higher education courses must be available to all those who are qualified by ability and attainment to pursue them and who wish to do so. That is why, as set out in the Conservative 'Get Britain Working' document, we need to create more university places, rather than reduce opportunity as the Labour Party seems determined to do. We also need to expand Further Education, vocational education and training to properly invest in our future as a nation and as a region.
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