David Willetts

Let me start by offering my congratulations on your valuable new report. It is a very useful statement of the current barriers limiting universities and business partnership as well as the potential for working more closely together in the future. The report is a useful contribution at a useful moment.

Up to 140,000 potential students are still looking for places at university after a significant shortage of places, 30,000 more than at the same point last year.

Responding to the news that up to 175,000 students have begun the university term without the loans and grants they’re entitled to, after the Government’s system of financial support for students this year went into meltdown, Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

The recession is hitting people of all ages. But young people are suffering most. Because a long period of unemployment when you are young can scar you for life. And we will all be poorer if we haven’t got the skilled young people we need when recovery comes.

The Conservatives are today announcing plans to create an extra 10,000 new university places next year to help tackle youth unemployment and prevent a repeat of this year’s crisis in university applications.

David Willetts MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, has welcomed the new report from the CBI on higher education. He said:

Previously unseen documents released under Freedom of Information show the Government’s key role in the decisions which led to this year’s student loans chaos. Tens of thousands of students will begin university tomorrow without loans and grants after administrative chaos led to severely delayed applications, loss of identification documents and thousands of unanswered helpline phone calls.

In response to ‘Learning Through Life’, a new report from NIACE on lifelong learning, the Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts, has today written to Lord Mandelson to seek assurances about reports that the student loans system is experiencing serious problems with processing applications.

Responding to the publication of A-Level results today, Shadow Secretary of State for University and Skills David Willetts, said:

New official figures published today reveal that the number of 18-24 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEET) has risen to another record high, with more than one in six young people now ‘NEET’.

Commenting on Policy Exchange’s report on support for part-time undergraduates, Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

New official figures show that in some areas of the country the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has increased by 75 per cent since figures were first collected in 2001.

A national apprenticeships website heavily promoted by Sir Alan Sugar has hired just one apprentice for every 25 vacancies listed, new figures have revealed.

The 13 colleges whose capital projects have been given the go-ahead by the Government are all in Labour constituencies, Conservative research has revealed.