Vocational and technical education are key to changing lives, and hold the potential to change people’s votes, too. They should dominate the Government’s attention.
She will, today, talk of “identify[ing] ways to help young people make more effective choices when they leave school”. This could be promising.
In the first of two pieces on Higher Education, the former Universities Minister argues that the conventional account of how fees and funding works is mistaken.
Yes, we need a resource shift to technical education. But the loss of the Tory majority last June will make it very slow going.
Divert funds from easing tuition fees into funding Further Education; sensible railway investment in the North; and refocus devolution on cities.
Given the resistance of Tory MPs to spending cuts and tax rises, Hammond’s easiest course would be to push any into the future. But this wouldn’t be problem-free…
The Social Market Foundation isn’t tied to any party. We’re centrists – our advice and ideas on offer to anyone who wants to put common sense ahead of ideology.
Plus: the official measure of inflation should be changed; student funding requires reform; and the Chancellor must prepare for No Deal.
Young people eat out, often several times a week – my fiancée and I could only afford to eat out once a month at most. They are also better paid, absolutely and relatively.
Targeting stamp duty and tuition fees could be less effective than technical education and the right industrial policy.
The gathering Tory tribe feel the urgent need to defeat Corbynism, but are not enamoured with the policy offer so far.
Whatever you think about the various political successes and failures of the past years, it is sobering for Conservatives to recognise that their party’s unrest could lead to Corbyn in charge.
It is wrong for those at the top to take advantage of the generosity of government, students, and other, far less well-remunerated, academic staff.
I believe there are three means of improving this situation: maintenance grants, the criteria for maintenance loans, and scholarships and bursaries.
In his second piece on Higher Education, the former Universities Minister looks at how they might be tweaked – and why the alternatives are reactionary, expensive or both.