Topical question asked in the House of Commons, by John Pugh (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Thursday, 12 March 2009 on behalf of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Topical Questions

Question: Has the Secretary of State had a chance to study early-day motion 1013, which deplores the university of Liverpool's intention to close down the three departments of philosophy, politics and statistics? A great city such as Liverpool needs philosophy and politics. What can the Minister do to discourage this appalling philistine act?

Answer: As we often celebrate in this House, we have a world-class higher education system in this country. One of the reasons for that is that I do not run the universities and I do not make such decisions about individual universities. I think that that is a shared view across the House. The truth is that these decisions—which often give rise to local, and sometimes even national, concerns—are decisions that must be taken by the universities themselves in developing their own priorities and sense of mission. I do not believe that our university system would be better off if central Government were to begin to dictate to universities which departments they should or should not close. Occasionally, the funding councils will rightly step in with strategic funding, as they have done in the past to sustain physics departments, but that is different from my stepping in on decisions made by Liverpool or any other university, which will inevitably make changes to their pattern of courses and investment over years to come.

Secondary information