David Willetts

Responding to Thursday’s HEFCE report “Trends in young participation in higher education: core results for England”, Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, David Willetts said:

Responding to UCAS figures showing a rise in university applications, Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

“These figures show there is growing demand to study at university. The number of English students going to English universities is up by 15,000.

Conservatives today launch the families section of the ‘Mending our Broken Society’ chapter of the Conservative Party’s draft manifesto. The section outlines plans to make Britain more family-friendly by:

Reforming the tax and benefits system to help families
Taking a new approach to early intervention
Helping families to balance their lives

Responding to the damning report into the collapse of the student finance system this year, which says that ultimate accountability for the fiasco rests with ministers and that they were too distanced from operational delivery, Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

In response to new research on the take-up of bursaries by students, Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

FURTHER EDUCATION

What a great pleasure it is to be here at your annual conference once again. Visiting members of the Association of Colleges is one of the best parts of my job. Only recently:

David Willetts, the Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, will today commit to a big reduction in the amount of information that has to be collected by further education colleges. Currently up to 200 pieces of data have to be collected for each course done by each student, and a typical college can have 45 staff who work exclusively on collecting and entering data.

New statistics published today reveal that the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has passed one million, after rising by more than 120,000 in the last three months.

Responding to the BBC survey which shows that three quarters of universities have had to provide emergency funding to students due to the meltdown in the Government’s student finance system this year, Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

Commenting on the Skills Strategy announced by Lord Mandelson today, Shadow Universities Secretary David Willetts said:

New figures from the Student Loans Company show that 176,000 students have still not received maintenance payments, more than a month after their courses started, following the collapse in the student finance system this year. Shadow Higher Education Minister, John Hayes, has still not received a response to his letter to David Lammy asking about the remit and timescale for the independent investigation into this year’s problems.

Responding to the launch of the higher education funding review, Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills David Willetts, said:

Commenting on new figures from UCAS showing that applications for starting university next year are up by more than ten per cent on the same time last year, Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

New figures from the Student Loans Company published today show that 109,000 students have still not had their applications for financial support processed, after the Government’s student support system collapsed this year. Weeks after term began there are still:

The number of new apprenticeships has plummeted by more than a third this year, despite a high profile advertising campaign by Sir Alan Sugar to encourage more young people to become apprentices.