Image: Keir Starmer [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0], via Flickr
Bridget Phillipson indicates government will support international student recruitment to put universities on “sustainable footing”
Bridget Phillipson has signalled that the Labour government is not planning to ease universities’ funding fears with an increase in tuition fees or public funding, but will back international student recruitment to help put institutions “on a more sustainable footing”.
The new education secretary was speaking in an interview with the BBC’s World at One after Keir Starmer’s government set out its legislative agenda in the King’s speech to parliament—in which measures on university funding did not feature.
But there will be warm welcomes from university leaders for her messages on backing the graduate-route visa, which Labour was silent on in opposition despite government moves, eventually abandoned, to scrap the route; on reform of the English sector regulator; and on increasing opportunities for young people to go to university.
Asked whether universities were entitled to ask “what is there in this for us” in the speech, given “the challenges on their financing”, Phillipson said: “Partly, what we’ve set out around Skills England…Universities are an important part of how we need to transform our landscape where it comes to skills, training and educational opportunities.
“Alongside that, I do know that the legacy the Labour government has inherited is one where universities are facing significant financial challenges.
“There is a lot I believe we can and will do to ensure there is good regulation and oversight of what has gone on. We’ve started that work already. The Office for Students, for example, we’ve begun to make changes there because the system we have had hasn’t delivered.”
‘More opportunities’
Challenged on the point that “you’re not going to put up the cost of university for students and you’re not going to give universities more money”, Phillipson replied: “We have no plans in that space because we want to make sure we are putting universities on a more sustainable footing overall.
“And part of that is what we see, for example, around international students, who are an important part of our system—not just in economic terms, what they contribute, but also in our reach around the world and our soft power.
“And the approach that we’ll take, unlike the Conservatives, is that we won’t make our universities and the people who study there the subject of headlines, a political battleground. This is about opportunities across our country.”
Asked whether Labour was content to allow international student numbers to rise, and relaxed about the number of student visas being granted, Phillipson said: “We have the graduate route that has worked very successfully for universities, has delivered massive benefits to communities like mine in Sunderland, where it has furthered investment opportunities—an important part of the system.
“But I also want to make sure that we’ve got more opportunities for people to go to university if that’s what they want to do.
“Increasingly, I’m concerned about the impact that we’re seeing on opportunities for young people, whether that’s apprenticeships or universities—I want really strong, good pathways for all of our young people, so that where you come from doesn’t determine what you can go on to achieve.”