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'Consumer' plan for universities University 'merit tests' to grow
(about 3 hours later)
The government is laying out its vision for the future of English universities, stressing the "customer experience" of students and ties with business. A-levels are not sufficient to identify the aptitude and potential of all those who should benefit from a university education, the government says.
The Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, has said students must have more information about teaching quality and likely future earnings. A framework for higher education in England over the next decade says social mobility must be reinvigorated.
He promised a new review of tuition fees would include students' views. Innovation and Skills Secretary Lord Mandelson said priority would go to new routes into higher education, especially for older students.
Lord Mandelson said social mobility must be promoted more and universities were not "factories for workers". Research money should focus on science clusters, and teaching must improve.
But he said universities also could not be islands or ivory towers and had a crucial role in the country's economic prosperity. Students, as consumers, needed to have far more information about courses, such as teaching quality and future employability.
'A better deal' Lord Mandelson said he would also shortly be announcing the promised independent review of tuition fees.
Lord Mandelson is to publish details of the higher education framework later this afternoon. He said that would seek "a balanced approach without placing a burden on any single source of funding".
But, speaking on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, he said he wanted "a better deal for students". It will not report until after the general election - with neither of the main political parties wanting to campaign on a possible significant rise in fees above the present £3,225 a year.
"They are paying customers, they need to be given much fuller information about what they can expect to get back from their courses," he said. Families and schools
FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME class="" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/default.stm">More from Today programme class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=7186">Send us your comments Launching the framework document, Higher ambitions - the future of universities in a knowledge economy, Lord Mandelson said ministers' vision was one of strong, autonomous institutions with diverse missions.
This included teaching quality and how much direct contact they would have with their teachers. But they needed to promote opportunity more widely to those who could benefit, and to narrow the attainment gap between the higher and lower socio-economic groups highlighted by Alan Milburn's report earlier this year.
A complaint, as universities have expanded, is that cost pressures have meant this contact time has suffered in some places. He told reporters: "What we are saying is that nobody should be disadvantaged or penalised on the basis of the families that they came from or the schools they attended, and the way in which a simple assessment based on A-level results might exclude them."
Lord Mandelson said that Alan Milburn's report on social mobility - or the lack of it - had exposed how many people from poorer backgrounds missed out on university. This was not a class issue: "There are middle class pupils who don't perform well, that have a strong aptitude and strong potential," he said.
And he said university research needed to be concentrated on providing economic benefits. He said many prestigious institutions already used contextual data about applicants' backgrounds to consider their aptitude and potential alongside their academic attainment.
There is also to be a separate review of student funding and tuition fees - due to be announced in the next few weeks and not expected to report until after the general election. The Director of Fair Access, Sir Martin Harris, has been asked to produce a report next spring on how more can be done to widen access to the most highly selective institutions for those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.
Lord Mandelson denied there was collusion with the Tories or "political cowardice" in setting that timescale. Lord Mandelson added that this was not something that he could compel universities to do and he was not seeking to dictate or control their admissions policies.
'Stem' subjects Arts and humanities
Where extra places were provided on degree courses, he wanted to continue to emphasise those that stimulated demand in the "Stem" subjects - science, technology, engineering and maths. He denied that the call for stronger ties between universities and industry, with higher education as a driver of economic recovery and growth, was too "utilitarian".
Much of the expansion of the higher education sector in recent years has been through foundation degrees - designed directly with the involvement of employers. "I would be very disappointed if people saw it in that way," he said.
Increasingly universities are already tailoring their portfolios to meet this demand. "There is public value in every subject and academic discipline provided by universities.
Lord Mandelson was asked if this meant less obviously career-focused courses would be less favoured? "They are there to provide us with both civilisation and competitiveness."
He said he could give an assurance that would not happen. Higher Education Minister David Lammy said the arts and humanities also enriched the country - but it had fallen behind so much prior to 1997 that a Save British Science campaign had been launched.
All subjects and disciplines had an innate public value and universities must respond to demand - but also they must consider the economic needs of the country, Lord Mandelson added. Lord Mandelson said "Stem" courses - science, technology, engineering and maths - cost more to run so attracted higher investment, while there was an economic need to stimulate demand for them.
"They are there to provide us with both civilisation and competitiveness," he said.
The leader of UCU lecturers' union, Sally Hunt, warned against treating higher education as a consumer product.
"Further marketisation of higher education will threaten that status. Universities are supposed to be about challenging perceived wisdom, not just ensuring a consumer is happy," she said.