Higher Education
14th October 2009
Anne Main highlights the plight of students caught up in the regarding fiasco that resulted in many missing out on their place at university.
Anne Main (St. Albans) (Con): I want to touch briefly on one or two points raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Reading, East (Mr. Wilson). He said that there is no point trying to widen participation in education when so many of our children are leaving school failed by this Government's system and with poor qualifications. Indeed, other hon. Members have also touched on the fact that many colleges have, like Oaklands college in my constituency, had the learning and skills grant pulled at short notice. That college is attended by many severely disabled pupils because Hertfordshire keeps its disabled pupil teaching within Hertfordshire and the college specialises in such teaching. It was hoping to widen participation for those disadvantaged young people, and what happened? At the eleventh hour and the 59th minute, the funding was pulled, leaving my college in a dilemma about what to do next. It is still struggling with that dilemma and Mark Dawe, who I meet regularly, has my utmost sympathy. It is no good seeing crocodile tears from the Government.
I want to touch briefly on a topic that has not come up. Many young people have been let down because they wanted to go to university this year but have been caught up in the regrading fiascos that, unfortunately, left them unable to take up their university places. Dr. Jack Alvarez, my constituent, who teaches at Haberdashers' Aske's school, which is just outside my constituency, wanted me to bring the matter to the attention of the Minister. Many extra pupils have been participating in GCSEs and, importantly, A-levels and AS-levels, and if the grades are challenged, the challenges need to be lodged within a certain time frame to ensure that they meet the clearing house dates.
Priority requests for regrading are usually handled within 18 days. Awarding bodies have until 7 September to deal with them, but the universities close their books by 28 September, and the bulge in the numbers of pupils applying to go to university this year has led to the matter being especially badly handled.
This year, 80 per cent. of all clearing places were taken by 25 August, even though exam results were released only on 20 August. Although the good news was that many high-flying pupils did get their results upgraded, I am sad to relate that the short time frame meant that a lot of them missed the opportunity to go to university or to the university of their choice, or they lost their university place.
The Minister must look at the problem. It is pointless to encourage young people to go to university if regrading is shoehorned into a time scale that is, frankly undeliverable. The result is that high-flying, well educated and qualified pupils from all walks of life end up being unable to access a college place of their choice. Some of them have looked at the loans fiasco, realised that it would cause them to struggle financially and said, "I'm walking away."
If the Government want to deter young people from participating in higher education, all they have to do is to put them in a system where there is very little chance of fair play. As happened with the loans fiasco, people who tried to communicate the problems that they were encountering found that the phone lines were impossible to access.
I shall rest on that point. We should think about what young people face: it is hard enough to start out in life but, when more than one obstacle is put in our way, many of us would say, "Forget it." Given the stresses and strains that hon. Members have suffered over the summer in our relationship with bureaucracy, surely we must recognise that many people will walk away when faced with the sort of obstacle that I have described.
If we want to encourage young people into higher education, we must ensure that they leave secondary school with the qualifications that they need, and then that their places and loans are managed properly.
