Western calls for rethink of ‘burdensome’ English regulation

Labour’s shadow higher education minister at Westminster has praised Wales’ targets to increase the number of adults with qualifications, along with its new system of tertiary regulation – suggesting a Labour government might shake up England’s Office for Students.

On funding and tuition fees in England, Matt Western confined himself to highlighting the party’s previous pointers on how the status quo of student loans could be tweaked to make repayments fairer, when he spoke at the Higher Education Policy Institute’s annual conference, held in London on 22 June.

On access, he told the event “how fond I am of the Welsh model being developed by Jeremy Miles”, minister for education in the Welsh Labour government.

Wales’ new tertiary regulator would have “clear targets, one of which is to ensure that 75 per cent of working age adults are qualified to at least Level 3 by 2050”, he said.

“I am confident we will see positive results in expanding access to tertiary education in Wales in years to come,” he added.

That 75 per cent target was “really inspiring” and “necessary because we have one of the least skilled workforces, certainly in Europe”, he continued.

On funding, Mr Western highlighted the recent Times piece by shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson, in which she reiterated Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s position that “we cannot prioritise delivering free university tuition, funded from general taxation”, instead putting the stress on how the existing system of student loan repayments could be reformed.

Ms Phillipson’s piece had pointed to evidence showing “there are changes the government could make right now that could cut graduates’ monthly repayments without increasing government spending”, said Mr Western.

“Whilst the exact contours of our approach to student finance will be hardened in due course, subject to increasingly grim financial realities as we’ve heard in the last 24 hours, our approach is one that will be guided by the principles of fairness and progressivity,” he added.

On regulation, with the Office for Students facing strong criticism from universities, Mr Western said Labour wanted a “healthy, well-regulated sector capable and able to innovate”.

Within that, the party wants to give universities the “space to breath without being treated as a political football”, with the “support of a risk-based, proportional regulatory framework”.

Mr Western highlighted Wales’ creation of a Commission for Tertiary Education and Research, responsible for overseeing the entire post-16 sector, including further education, higher education, apprenticeships, sixth forms and Welsh-government funded research and innovation.

This was “one of the most innovative policy reforms of the tertiary education sector at the moment”, said Mr Western, adding that he was “keeping very close tabs on its progress”.

He highlighted the link between the coming Lifelong Loan Entitlement and getting regulation right.

“We cannot successfully implement lifelong learning without a flexible regulatory framework,” he said, one that “harmonises burdensome reporting requirements from multiple regulators in the tertiary education sector”.

Taking questions from the audience, Mr Western said that “speaking to so many universities…there are significant frustrations at the regulatory burden, not just [with] the OfS but with the myriad regulators you have to work with”.

He added: “I do think there needs to be some consideration to what form regulation should look like…because it’s overly burdensome and an absolute horror for administrators.”

On tuition fees, Mr Western said: “Bridget has set out clearly how we can do this, which is to the advantage of students today, costing them less and being more progressive in how students repay their loans.”

The impact of the government’s most recent increases to loan repayments for new borrowers, taking effect from September, were “obscene” for some groups of female students, for example, he said.

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com