David Willetts

Responding to the Prime Minister’s announcement to the Commons Liaison Committee that the Government will increase the number of university places for the coming academic year, David Willetts MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, said:

“This is the Government that took a specific decision to reduce the number of extra student places for 2009/10.

“Now the Prime Minister has signalled a reversal of this policy. Young people need to know urgently exactly what this means.

“How many places will be available? When will people be able to apply for them? And what funding is available for universities that want to offer more places?”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. The Prime Minister was asked today by the Commons Liaison Committee what he would say to university applicants struggling to find a place. In response, he said: “we will provide more places than have been previously announced. The universities minister will make an announcement in due course.”

2. This announcement is a reversal of the Government’s position:

* in October 2008, ministers cut the number of additional student places for 2009/10 from 15,000 to 10,000 (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm081029/wmstext/81029m0001.htm); and

* in January 2009, John Denham MP, then the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, wrote to the Higher Education Funding Council for England to say ‘you should not issue any further ASNs [Additional Student Numbers] for 2009/10. Since our original funding assumptions were for 15,000 ASNs to be allocated, I am reducing the funding for the coming year by £19m’ (http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2009/grant/letter.htm).

3. Only 3,000 of the 10,000 extra places were designed to be for first-year, full-time undergraduates. The other 7,000 places were for postgraduate and part-time students (http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/SU_116_HEFCE_Supp.pdf).

4. David Willetts has repeatedly warned ministers that their decision to cut the number of Additional Student Numbers has hit young people’s aspirations during the recession. For example:

* January 2009: http://www.davidwilletts.co.uk/2009/01/22/impossible-to-meet-50-per-cent-target/

* April 2009: http://www.davidwilletts.co.uk/2009/04/23/ministers-blocking-thousands-of-university-applicants/

* July 2009: http://www.davidwilletts.co.uk/2009/07/09/summer-crisis-in-university-applications-fast-approaching/