Tag Archives: universities

Mark Valladares

19 March 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 20th March 2025 - 7:30 am
  • US-Russia call: Putin is “stringing Trump along”
  • NICs vote: Labour MPs vote for “health tax” on GPs, pharmacies and care homes
  • Conservative local election launch: “buck stops” with Badenoch
  • “Time for a fair deal for farmers” – Carmichael to introduce Food Supply Chain Fairness Bill
  • Scottish Government admits it failed to conduct safeguarding review
  • Minister visited Skye House just months before cruelty allegations surfaced
  • Severn Estuary Commission Report – Get on with Building the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon
  • Rennie responds to damning evidence session on funding crisis at Dundee University

US-Russia call: Putin is “stringing Trump along”

Responding to Putin’s phone call with Trump, Calum Miller MP, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, said:

Donald Trump’s fawning call with Putin couldn’t be more different to his and JD Vance’s shameful bullying of Zelensky in the Oval Office.

It’s clear Trump is being played by Putin – stringing him along and currying favour even as his savage war machine continues to push deeper into Ukraine.

Now is the time for the UK and our allies in Europe and the Commonwealth to redouble our efforts to support Ukraine’s defence and achieve a lasting peace.

NICs vote: Labour MPs vote for “health tax” on GPs, pharmacies and care homes

Responding to the Government voting to reject a Liberal Democrat amendment which would have exempted health and care providers from the national insurance rise, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Labour MPs today have voted for a health tax on GPs, dentists, pharmacies, hospices and care homes, and it is patients who will pay the price.

The Liberal Democrats are proud we have led the fight to exempt health and care providers from this misguided tax hike, and we will not give up now.

On April 6th worried social care providers and GP surgeries are going to be hit with bills they simply cannot afford. Rachel Reeves must finally see sense, U-turn on this disastrous policy and exempt health and care providers from this damaging jobs tax.

Conservative local election launch: “buck stops” with Badenoch

Commenting on the Conservatives’ local election launch tomorrow (20th March) a Liberal Democrat spokesperson said:

The buck stops with bungling Badenoch. If she fails to deliver in the local elections, the writing will truly be on the wall for her and for the Conservative Party.

Whilst they compete with Reform and tilt ever further to the right, the Liberal Democrats are focused on delivering for residents on issues including the cost of living, sewage in our rivers and the emergency in our NHS and care.

We’re hearing on the doorsteps that people haven’t forgiven the Conservatives for all the damage they’ve done. If Kemi speaks to voters tomorrow, she will doubtless hear the same. Voters have a clear choice in May, and across the country, including in Buckinghamshire, they are turning to the Liberal Democrats as community champions who will stand up for them.

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Mark Valladares

17 March 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 17th March 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • OECD: Chancellor cannot ignore “steady drumbeat of economic misery”
  • Thames Water appeal: Govt must put company into special administration
  • Scottish Lib Dems: We must end big city bias in creative spend
  • Rennie: Dundee University needs a ministerial taskforce
  • Ferguson missing out on ferries order “hangover” from SNP fiasco

OECD: Chancellor cannot ignore “steady drumbeat of economic misery”

Responding to the OECD revising down their 2025 growth forecast for the UK by 0.3 percentage points to 1.4%, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

The Chancellor cannot ignore this steady drumbeat of economic misery any longer. Trump’s senseless tariffs and the Government’s own economic policies are acting as an anchor on any meaningful growth.

At the Spring Statement, Rachael Reeves cannot bury her head in the sand. She must admit that her Budget has failed to break from the years of Conservative economic vandalism.

The Chancellor must change course by first scrapping her growth-crushing jobs tax which is about to hammer small businesses, and second, by embracing the idea of a bespoke UK-EU Customs Union which would unleash growth.

Only then will we see the growth needed to rebuild our public services and properly protect family finances.

Thames Water appeal: Govt must put company into special administration

Responding to the news that the court has rejected his appeal to prevent Thames Water from an additional £3 billion bail out, MP for Witney Charlie Maynard said:

Thames Water remains a cash cow for its lenders, while its 16 million customers are left to foot the bill for the company’s ludicrously expensive interest charges and advisory fees.

It is in the Government’s power to end this now for the benefit of the British public and seek to put the company into special administration.

We must not stand back and allow Thames Water’s lenders to keep lining their pockets at the expense of customers and the environment while our regulators sit on their hands and the company pumps gallons of sewage into our rivers, neglects basic repairs and hikes up customers’ bills.

Scottish Lib Dems: We must end big city bias in creative spend

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today revealed the disparities in arts spending across Scotland and urged the SNP Government to ensure that creative talent can flourish in every corner of the country.

Creative Scotland is the public body responsible for funding the creative industries in Scotland and distributing funding from the Scottish Government and the National Lottery.

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Mark Valladares

15-16 March 2025 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sun 16th March 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • Davey on PM’s virtual summit: only way to achieve peace is to strengthen Ukraine’s hand by seizing frozen Russian assets
  • NHS England: Same urgency must now be shown for social care
  • SNP RAAC response non-existent compared to England
  • Rennie responds to Gilruth Dundee University comments

Davey on PM’s virtual summit: only way to achieve peace is to strengthen Ukraine’s hand by seizing frozen Russian assets

Responding to the Prime Minister’s virtual meeting with world leaders to discuss Ukraine, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Putin could end this war today if he wanted peace, but it’s clear he’s only interested in destroying Ukraine’s sovereignty and turning it into a vassal state of Russia.

The only way to achieve a just and lasting peace is to strengthen Ukraine. We must redouble our efforts to support their defence in the face of Putin’s barbarism. If Ukraine loses, all of Europe will be less secure.

The PM must now commit to seizing the frozen Russian assets in the UK, and forge an agreement to do the same across Europe, to help strengthen Ukraine’s hand and ensure we can achieve real peace.

NHS England: Same urgency must now be shown for social care

Responding to the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, speaking this morning on scrapping NHS England, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson, Helen Morgan said:

The Health Secretary is right that the NHS is broken and in need of major reform after years of Conservative failure. The focus must now be on ensuring that scrapping NHS England, and any further cuts, do not have negative impacts on the quality of care for patients.

The Government must also take the same sense of urgency shown here to social care, and complete their review by the end of the year rather than continuing to kick the can down the road.

SNP RAAC response non-existent compared to England

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has criticised the SNP for doing nothing to support health boards in dealing with RAAC, after research by his party found that the dangerous building material has been removed in scores of NHS buildings across England.

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Mark Valladares

12 March 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 12th March 2025 - 11:55 pm
  • Steel tariffs: Business and Trade Secretary needs to toughen up against Trump
  • PM speech: Starmer “tinkering around the edges”
  • Bathing Water Monitoring Announcement: Ultimately, this is not enough
  • Rennie calls for statement to Parliament on future of University of Dundee
  • Cole-Hamilton responds to Sturgeon stepping down

Steel tariffs: Business and Trade Secretary needs to toughen up against Trump

Responding to Trump’s levelling of 25% tariffs on steel and comments by Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds this morning, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Being repeatedly kicked by the other side and doing nothing is not an effective negotiating position. The Business Secretary needs to toughen up.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives would roll over and beg Trump for a bad trade deal that sells out British farmers and our NHS.

Enough is enough. We must act from a position of strength, standing up for British steel and the UK economy through retaliatory measures.

PM speech: Starmer “tinkering around the edges”

Commenting ahead of the Prime Minister’s speech tomorrow, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The Prime Minister is tinkering around the edges while our economy continues to stutter.

The last Conservative government left behind mountains of waste, but these measures are doomed to fail without far more ambition to get the economy growing.

Keir Starmer needs to act now by reversing his devastating National Insurance jobs tax and moving much faster to fix social care – the only way to save the NHS.

If the Prime Minister is committed to kickstarting growth he must urgently negotiate an ambitious new deal with the EU to boost trade, grow our economy and create jobs.

Bathing Water Monitoring Announcement: Ultimately, this is not enough

Commenting after the UK Government announced that monitoring for swimming sites in England and Wales will be updated for the first time since 2013, Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick MP said:

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Mark Valladares

11 March 2025 – today’s Scottish press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 11th March 2025 - 11:15 pm
  • Jardine calls for doubling of maternity pay
  • Cole-Hamilton: We cannot fix A&E waits without fixing social care
  • Carmichael calls for government response following shipping collision
  • 1,065 drugs deaths last year
  • Vacancies in majority of care homes and care at home services
  • Rennie responds to Dundee University news

Jardine calls for doubling of maternity pay

Liberal Democrat women and equalities spokesperson Christine Jardine MP has called for the UK Government to do everything possible to tackle economic barriers for women, including by doubling statutory maternity pay and expanding parental leave.

As well as backing parental leave as a day-one right at work, Liberal Democrats are calling on the UK Government to:

  • Double Statutory Maternity Pay to £350 a week.
  • Increase paternity pay to 90% of earnings.
  • Create a new use-it-or-lose-it ‘dad month’, encouraging more fathers to take parental leave.

Currently, low rates of statutory maternity and paternity pay are not high enough to give parents a real choice, while the UK’s two weeks of statutory paternity leave lags far behind most advanced economies. Around a quarter of fathers are not eligible for paternity pay, either because they are self-employed or because they have not been with their employer continuously for six months.

The party argues that encouraging more fathers to take parental leave is critical to closing the gender pay gap. On average, women face a ‘pay penalty’ of 45% lower earnings in the six years after giving birth to their first child.

Ms Jardine said:

As we celebrate the achievements of women and girls across Scotland, we cannot forget about the barriers that stand in the way of progress.

That’s why my party is committed to doubling maternity pay and expanding parental leave.

Doubling maternity pay would help ease the pressure on women to return to work before they are ready.

Meanwhile, encouraging more fathers to take paternity leave will give women greater choice and help new dads to spend time with their child.

Liberal Democrats want to see women given the choice and flexibility they need, backed up by a proper package of support.

Cole-Hamilton: We cannot fix A&E waits without fixing social care

Responding to new figures showing only 63.5% of people attending A&E were seen within the 4 hour target in the week ending 2nd March, while 3,532 people waited over 8 hours and 1,510 waited over 12 hours, Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

For years under the SNP our A&E departments have been left mired in crisis and it’s leading to staff burning out.

The problem at A&E is that there isn’t enough capacity. Too many people are stuck unable to leave hospital because they can’t get the care package they need to leave safely.

We cannot fix these A&E waits without fixing the problems in social care to create the capacity needed to get people seen on time. That’s why Scottish Liberal Democrats fought for more money for social care in the budget and back a new UK-wide minimum wage for care workers that is £2 higher.

Carmichael calls for government response following shipping collision

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has said that a shipping collision off the coast of North-East England today must be “a spur for stronger regulation” against unsafe behaviour by tankers, including in the waters around the Northern Isles. Mr Carmichael noted local complaints about tankers sheltering in areas off the coast of Shetland in particular, despite these being marked as “areas to be avoided” for such vessels.

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Mark Valladares

8-9 March 2025 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sun 9th March 2025 - 11:59 pm
  • Davey: Starmer should visit new Canadian PM and stand in solidarity against Trump “turning the screws” on Canada
  • Chamberlain: Remove barriers for women by supporting unpaid carers
  • Cole-Hamilton: Long Covid still harming lives five years since pandemic
  • Rennie demands urgency as half of Scotland’s universities fall into deficit

Davey: Starmer should visit new Canadian PM and stand in solidarity against Trump “turning the screws” on Canada

As Mark Carney is announced the new leader of Canada, Ed Davey has called on Starmer to head to Ottawa to stand in solidarity with the country’s new Prime Minister in response to Trump’s threats against Canada.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey has offered his “warmest congratulations” to the new Canadian PM, Mark Carney. He celebrated the joint Commonwealth history of the two nations, including their shared monarch.

He has also called on Keir Starmer to fly to Canada this week as a show of support, as Trump continues to threaten the imposition of tariffs on Canadian products – as well as on steel and aluminium imports, including from the UK, later this week. Trump has also continued to make alarming comments about wanting to turn Canada into America’s ‘51st State’.

It’s vital for both British and Canadian security that the Commonwealth allies “stand strong together”, Davey said – urging Starmer to show a “united front” against Donald Trump’s “senseless” threats against Canada’s sovereignty and economy.

Ed Davey, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said:

I would like to express my warmest congratulations to the new leader of Canada, Mark Carney. We treasure Canada’s historic relationship with the UK and I look forward to our two nations’ ties becoming ever stronger during your premiership.

It’s vital for both British and Canadian security that we stand strong together. With global instability rising, it’s never been more important to show a united front with our Commonwealth friends – and to stand together against Trump senselessly turning the screws on his allies, whether that’s Canada, the UK or Europe.

Responding to the trade war along the North American border, our Prime Minister must stand in solidarity against Trump’s bullying and visit Ottawa in a joint show of strength. Starmer must be clear that Trump’s threats against Commonwealth nations’ sovereignty are unacceptable.

Chamberlain: Remove barriers for women by supporting unpaid carers

Speaking on International Women’s Day, Scottish Liberal Democrat deputy leader Wendy Chamberlain MP has pledged to improve support for unpaid carers in order to tackle gender inequality across society, as she highlighted that the majority of Scotland’s unpaid carers are female.

According to the Scottish Government’s 2023-24 Carers Census survey, 73% of all unpaid carers are female.

A 2023 survey from Care Scotland found that a third of female unpaid carers have given up employment to care. A further 55% said that their physical health has suffered as a result of their caring role, while 81% felt stressed or anxious because of it.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have brought forward a series of measures to help unpaid carers across the country, including through Ms Chamberlain’s Carer’s Leave Act.

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Lord William Wallace

Liberalism and Freedom of Speech in universities

By Lord William Wallace | Sun 21st November 2021 - 5:45 pm

As the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill moves slowly through Parliament, Liberal Democrats are having to grapple with contested assumptions about freedom of speech and its limits. This is a culture war bill. The polarization of American politics is seeping into Britain. Britain has become a far more liberal society over the past 50 years. We must resist attempts to push the clock back.

The Bill starts from the assertion that universities are incapable of defending free speech. It asserts that a new ‘free speech champion’ and a new right to sue universities are required to restore this freedom for those (staff, students, or visitors) who claim to have been denied the right to speak. It follows Policy Exchange papers, and articles in right-wing papers, that assert that university staff are now overwhelmingly left-wing, that they indoctrinate their students, and that academic culture has a chilling effect on staff who hold divergent views.

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NewsHound

Daisy Cooper challenges the government on return of students to university

By NewsHound | Thu 15th April 2021 - 2:21 pm

Daisy Cooper, MP for St Albans, Deputy Leader and spokesperson for education has just been challenging ministers in the Commons on the problem students have been experiencing during the pandemic. She said that students felt forgotten, that their mental health had deteriorated and government funds for students facing hardship should be doubled.

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Mark Valladares

21 May 2019 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 21st May 2019 - 11:50 pm
  • Moran: Let’s hope more Universities follow Oxford’s diversity drive
  • Hobhouse: End short prison sentences to cut crime
  • Cable: Stop Brexit altogether to end turmoil for British business
  • Chancellor’s warning must trigger No Deal U-turn
  • Cable: Lib Dems “now indisputably the strongest remain party”
  • Lamb: Govt must end abuse of our most vulnerable
  • With no guarantee of a People’s Vote the PM will get no support from the Lib Dems
  • Jenny Randerson: Brexit endangers devolution settlement

Moran: Let’s hope more Universities follow Oxford’s diversity drive

Responding to the news that Oxford University is set to overhaul its recruitment processes, and will commit that at least 25% of students will be …

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The Voice

An academic Brexodus is upon us

By The Voice | Thu 14th June 2018 - 8:43 am

Lib Dem activist Dr Ruvi Zieglar has written for the Cherwell, Oxford University’s newspaper, on the effect of Brexit being felt by universities. Many European staff are leaving because of the uncertainties surrounding jobs, research funding and future prospects.

Ruvi says,

‘Brexodus’ is picking up speed: according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 130,000 EU27 citizens emigrated between September 2016-17, the highest number since the 2008 financial crisis.

Ruvi goes on to explain,

Nearly two years after the referendum, EU27 are still waiting for their post-Brexit rights to be secured….The draft Withdrawal Agreement hardly

…

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Simon Perks

We must protect our universities’ freedom

By Simon Perks | Thu 8th March 2018 - 5:00 pm

Image result for universitiesIt is rare that governments get to do exactly what they want. Opposition parties, the judiciary and others have traditionally also wielded significant influence, tempering the more extreme ideas of those in power and highlighting the pitfalls of proposed policies.

This era of moderation is, however, coming to a close. Those who once held our governments to account are being systematically declawed.

Politicians who deviate from their party line are subjected to torrents of abuse and the threat of deselection. The House of Lords, with its essential powers of scrutiny, is ridiculed as stuffy and out of touch. And then there’s the Labour party, which is currently offering as much opposition to the Government as a hermit crab would to an Apache helicopter gunship.

The saving grace in all of this has been our universities and their academics, who have argued consistently on the side of reason and reasonableness.

But now our universities, too, are under threat.

It started with the gradual move – in which we were, sadly, complicit – from government funding to student tuition fees, turning higher education from a public into a private good and unleashing market forces into a domain in which they do not belong.

But it did not stop there. The new sector regulator, the Office for Students, has lost the policy-setting powers of its predecessor. The Prime Minister has launched a review of higher education funding that has more ‘red lines’ than a London bus map. And Vice Chancellors, who are forced to bear the brunt of this onslaught, have been demonised by MPs and the media for their salaries and expenses.

Whether or not this represents a concerted effort by the Government to emasculate our universities, the effect is the same. And we risk losing some of the last sane voices in the debate of our lives.

We have long been the party of thinking people, of academics and of students. We messed that up with our ill-advised coalition capitulation on raising tuition fees. But it is not too late to make amends.

So what should we do?

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Caron Lindsay

Vince: Government must act to secure university lecturers’ pensions

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 24th February 2018 - 12:23 pm

This smart little piece of digital magic sums up Vince Cable’s position on the university lecturers’ strike. He has called on the Government to underwrite the lecturers’ pension scheme.

The former Business Secretary, who was responsible for universities, called on the Government to intervene to stop lecturers being left up to £10,000 a year worse off in a letter to the current Universities Minister:

Dear Sam,
As you are aware, university lecturers have started 14 days of strikes due to drastic changes to their pensions. A lecturer can expect to be left around £10,000 a year worse off in retirement as a result.  Younger lecturers will be the worst hit; it has been estimated they could lose up to half of their total retirement pot. Lecturers are not well paid; the reward for their hard work has largely been in the form of relatively generous packages, including a defined benefit pension.

There is a large deficit of around £6-7.5bn in the scheme, so some work clearly needs to be done to bring this down urgently.  However, this does not necessitate the drastic action being taken – particularly given there are question marks over how the deficit has been calculated – notably a shift of the risk burden on to employees. Universities UK has shown few signs of being willing to compromise, which has led to an impasse that will harm the academic study of more than one million students.

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Caron Lindsay

Layla to May: Sack “witch-hunt” whip

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 24th October 2017 - 8:02 pm

It’s not surprising that an MP for a university town is horrified at the actions of a Government whip in writing to universities demanding to know who is teaching what about Brexit on their campuses.

It was reported today that Chris Heaton-Harris, a leading eurosceptic MP and a senior government whip, wrote to vice-chancellors at the start of this month asking for the names of any professors involved in teaching on Brexit and the content of their lectures.

Layla who is also Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson said:

This chilling letter could have come straight out of a dystopian novel.

Conservative Brexiteers know

…

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Charles Lawley

If you thought our stance on tuition fees was controversial… – the case for Lifetime Education

By Charles Lawley | Mon 12th December 2016 - 9:50 am

 

Whether you are for or against our actions on tuition fees, we can’t pretend it’s not still an open wound for us. It’s an elephant in the room when talking to non-Lib Dems and when discussed between Lib Dems it leads to a row. The irony is that this all happened whilst higher and further education are in their death throes.

The current model of a child attending school, then choosing whether to enter the workforce until retirement at that point or to take a few years of higher education first, then never attending education for the rest of his/her life, will be archaic.

This week The Daily Mail took a break from bashing immigrants, judges or spinning the “What Can Give You Cancer” wheel and turned its attention on the threat posed by robots “ROBOTS TO STEAL 15M OF YOUR JOBS” their headline roared. Their headline isn’t wrong – whether it’s 15 million, 5 million or one in 11 jobs –many of the jobs humans do today will soon be automated by, for want of a less sci-fi description, “robots”. And, as the limitations of and the cost to produce these robots lowers, the more common they will become. We need to adapt to this.

Over the past 30-40 years the amount of careers available to people who enter the workforce without a higher education has reduced dramatically, with more people being accepted into universities and the ICT revolution of the 1990s seeing many low-skilled jobs move overseas – this, I would argue, has led to the rise of the anger against globalisation amongst the white working class. A generation ago you could leave school, find a decent career – working your way up the ladder until retirement.  This career narrative is now on the endangered list and robots will knock it into extinction.

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The Voice

Farron: Government doesn’t understand needs of universities or public perceptions of immigration

By The Voice | Fri 14th October 2016 - 10:25 am

Universities UK has published the results of a poll carried out by ICM which shows that only a quarter of people think of foreign students as immigrants and that the vast majority of people think that foreign students make a valuable contribution and should be allowed to stay on to work here after graduation.

Two-thirds agreed that international students have a positive impact on the local economies of the towns and cities that they study in, and three in five (59%) agreed that their economic contribution helps create jobs.

The poll also indicated that seven in ten adults believe it is better if international students use their skills here and work in the UK for a period of time in order to contribute to the economy rather than returning immediately to their home country after completing their stud

 Almost half (47%) of those polled believed there should be no limit on how long international students should be able to stay and work in the UK after they have completed their study, providing they are employed and contributing to the economy.

Tim Farron had this to say about the poll:

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Stephen Tall

Why Lib Dems shouldn’t keep schtum about tuition fees

By Stephen Tall | Thu 14th August 2014 - 8:35 pm

tuition fees vote“University tuition fee rise has not deterred poorer students from applying”. That was the headline in The Guardian this week reporting new analysis by the Independent Commission on Fees chaired by Will Hutton:

The raising of tuition fees to £9,000 has not put off students from disadvantaged backgrounds from applying to university – although the gap in applications between those from wealthy and poor backgrounds remains wide, according to new analysis. …

The commission found that university application rates for 18-year-olds in England have continued to recover from their post-rise lows, with application rates for 2014 entry – including students who will receive their A-level results on Thursday – almost two percentage points higher than in 2010.

While students who are not eligible for free school meals – available for pupils from households earning less than £16,000 – remain more than twice as likely to go to university, the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students has narrowed from 30.5% in 2010 to 29.8% in 2013.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Tim Farron – In 2010, we promised to deliver the Pupil Premium. In 2015, I want us to promise to deliver the Student Premium

By NewsHound | Wed 16th April 2014 - 3:01 pm

Tim Farron speaking - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsLib Dem party president Tim Farron has given his personal backing to the Lib Dems promising a Student Premium – modelled on the well-received Pupil Premium – at the next election. First proposed by his colleague Stephen Williams, Tim writes the Student Premium “could potentially change the game in terms of student uptake, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds”. Here’s an excerpt of his article for the April issue of the magazine, Politics First:

The Pupil Premium is being delivered only because the Liberal

…

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Stephen Tall

‘Good’ gender segregation and ‘bad’ gender segregation?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 12th December 2013 - 9:08 am

universities_uk logoI’ve just heard the Chief Executive of Universities UK be put through the mill on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme following its decision to publish advice that gender segregation might not necessarily be discriminatory as long as “both men and women are being treated equally, as they are both being segregated in the same way”. The guidance – which you can read here – is specific to invited external speakers at meetings on university premises.

I do not like gender segregation. At all. Maybe it’s the result of having …

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Sam Phripp

Opinion: A Liberal approach to Higher Education

By Sam Phripp | Tue 20th August 2013 - 1:21 pm

University campusWhen people ask me why I’m a Liberal Democrat, I simplify it slightly. Yes, it’s because I have a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament and I think he’s pretty great, but it’s also because I quite like freedom, and I think it should be applied more liberally (see what I did there?).

I always describe Liberalism as being obsessed with freedom. It’s a very simple way of encompassing so many of the campaigns and issues we care so passionately about. We raised the tax threshold, because people on low incomes deserve freedom from a punitive tax burden. We legalised same-sex marriage because people deserve the freedom to marry whoever they see fit. The changes to benefits – controversial thought they are – are about ensuring that people aren’t beholden to the state without good reason.

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Stephen Tall

The good news on university applications in 5 graphs

By Stephen Tall | Wed 24th July 2013 - 10:15 am

While the attention of the world’s media was focused on an 8lb 6oz bundle of Royal joy, there was perhaps even more significant good news about young people that didn’t garner quite so much coverage: demand for higher education from young people is at or near record levels for each country of the UK in 2013. This was announced by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) yesterday, an analysis of patterns of demand from over 20 million applications for higher education from 2004 to 2013 — if ever there were a day to bury good news…

Here are five graphs which tell the story…

Demand for higher education from young people is at or near record levels for each country of the UK in 2013.

ucas figures - application figs 2013

Application rates for English 18 year olds have increased by one percentage point to 35 per cent in 2013. This increase is typical of the trend between 2006 and 2011 and takes the application rate back to the 2011 level, after its decrease in 2012. Application rates for 18 year olds in Northern Ireland have increased to 48 per cent, application rates in Scotland (32 per cent) and Wales (30 per cent) are similar to the 2012 cycle.

Application rates for young, disadvantaged groups have increased to new highs in England.

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The Voice

Rennie challenges SNP to set fair access test for Scottish universities

By The Voice | Mon 14th November 2011 - 8:12 am

The Press Association reports:

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called on the Scottish Government to put a fair access policy in place, or extend the remit of the the Office of Fair Access north of the border. He said this would not only address the fair access gap for poorer students from England and Wales, but also improve the chances of Scottish students deciding to go to university.

Mr Rennie said: “With Scottish universities now able to set fees of up to £9,000 a year, and Edinburgh and St Andrews universities now the most expensive place to study in the

…

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Ewan Hoyle

Opinion: Pity the Scottish school-leavers when English fees rise

By Ewan Hoyle | Sun 30th October 2011 - 2:10 pm

I’m a candidate in a council by-election in the Hillhead ward in Glasgow. I’m a Liberal Democrat, and the ward has a big old university slap bang in the middle of it. You’d think I’d be bricking it, wouldn’t you? After the tuition fees betrayal, students hate the Liberal Democrats, don’t they? Well they might do, but I’d like to explain how the real villains in Scotland are the SNP.

The SNP are in fact imposing thousands of pounds of up-front fees on each and every Scottish student and their families. “But the SNP have preserved free tuition!” I hear …

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Posted in Op-eds and Scotland | Also tagged , and | 36 Comments
Jonathan Clifton

The Independent View: Coalition’s social mobility strategy failing

By Jonathan Clifton | Fri 28th October 2011 - 9:54 am

The government’s plan to improve social mobility has been dealt a series of blows over the past week. New education data show that trends towards a more ‘socially mobile’ Britain are pointing in the wrong direction.

Nick Clegg launched the government’s social mobility strategy last April, promising to ‘open the doors of opportunity’ to children from disadvantaged homes as they move into adulthood. Children from poor homes are half as likely to achieve five good GCSEs as their better off peers, and they account for less than one in a hundred Oxbridge students. Clegg rightly pointed out that …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged , , , , and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

How do the university application figures match up against my five questions?

By Mark Pack | Mon 24th October 2011 - 11:00 pm

On Sunday, ahead of the publication of the first tranche of university application figures, I posed five questions for judging what they meant. Now the full figures are out, how to do they compare to those five tests?

Let’s see…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 22 Comments
Mark Pack

Five questions you should ask to make sense of the university application figures

By Mark Pack | Sun 23rd October 2011 - 10:16 am

Tomorrow the first UCAS application figures for this year are officially published, with some leaked figures having appeared in the Sunday Times today. Superficially the headline figures are not great with an apparent 10% drop. But I’m holding off forming a view until I’ve seen the full figures, because there are five key questions to ask about the figures:

1. Some courses, such as medicine, tend to have much earlier application deadlines than those for other courses. Are applications for those early closing courses dropping (which would indicate a problem) or is it that early applications for courses with later deadlines …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 24 Comments
David Thorpe

Opinion: Why free university tuition for all is deeply regressive in today’s Britain

By David Thorpe | Fri 30th September 2011 - 3:50 pm

Political speeches are usually replete with statistics, numbers culled without context and thrown in the path of critics like metaphorical stingers strewn across a motorway.

But one statistic from Nick Clegg’s conference speech which deserves to live and breathe in its own right is that in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (where I currently live) more than half of children progress from school to university. In the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (where I lived before moving to Hammersmith) the figure is that just 4% of children go to University. These Boroughs are thirty minutes away from ach other …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 34 Comments
George Potter

Opinion: What Nick should say about tuition fees at the 2015 general election

By George Potter | Tue 27th September 2011 - 4:25 pm

More than any other issue, tuition fees have damaged the view of our party in the country as a whole. For what it’s worth, here’s what I think our leader should say about fees when going into the next general election:

I would just like to say a few brief words about tuition fees.

As a party, we entered the last election with a promise to oppose any increase in tuition fees. As a party, we then broke that pledge. That was wrong.

Nothing can justify breaking a promise like that. Nothing. We made a mistake and we have been punished

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 49 Comments
Stephen Tall

Labour’s odd messaging: how the party was for reversing Coalition cuts before it was against them

By Stephen Tall | Tue 27th September 2011 - 9:15 am

Mark Pack has already highlighted the pitfalls of political opponents commentating on other parties’ conferences. And he’s right of course. But it didn’t stop him, so I won’t let it stop me…

I am genuinely puzzled by Labour’s key messages based on the first two days of their conference. Day 1 kicked off with the Big Announcment by Ed Miliband that Labour is now committed to doubling tuition fees (dressed up as only The Observer could as Labour committing to ‘slashing’ fees).

Regardless of what you think about the policy, and I think I’ve made my views clear …

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Tim Leunig

Tim Leunig writes: The problem with Labour’s proposed tuition fees cap

By Tim Leunig | Tue 27th September 2011 - 7:40 am

Ed Miliband has seized the initiative at the start of his conference, announcing that Labour would cap student fees at £6,000 per year. This policy is superficially attractive, and is clearly designed to win over LibDem supporters who remain angry at the rise in tuition fees.

Today I have published an analysis of Labour’s proposal. It uses the Business Innovation and Skills graduate income “ready reckoner”, which is based on data from the ONS Labour Force Survey. The underlying data are as good as they can be, although of course predicting graduate incomes in 30 years time is a dangerous …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 15 Comments
Mark Pack

Ed Balls has a new take on having your cake and eating it

By Mark Pack | Mon 26th September 2011 - 9:19 pm

There are two problems with a Liberal Democrat like myself blogging about Labour Party conference. First, as I’ve so often seen from the other side of the fence, an outside blogging about another party’s conference frequently misreads what is really happening. And second, no blogger can compete with Hopi Sen and his cat.

So caveats deployed and on to the confusion that Ed Balls’s speech today left me in. For he had two messages: first, that Labour can’t promise to undo the government’s cuts and, second, that many of the cuts are wrong. Either on its own would be a …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 2 Comments
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