Written question asked by James Clappison (Conservative) on Monday, 4 July 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 6 July 2011. It was answered by Lord Willetts (Conservative) on Monday, 11 July 2011 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Higher Education: Admissions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what factors underlay his decision to ask for advice in the autumn on the first round of approvals of new Access Agreements set out in paragraph 5.25 of the Higher Education White Paper; and whether such advice has been asked for in the past on the basis set out in the White Paper.

Answer: Ministers at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills wrote to the Director of Fair Access on 10 February 2011 setting out the Government's expectations about how he should approach the approval and monitoring of new Access Agreements. The guidance set out significantly increased expectations for the priority that institutions should give to fair access and widening participation. We have made clear that we expect there to be a strengthened process for agreeing the level of investment each institution should make in activities to improve access, linked to progress being made and distance to travel to achieve published measures.In that letter we asked the Director for his formal Access Agreement monitoring outcome report to analyse and comment on institutions' performance against their own benchmarks, measures and targets, and how these become more ambitious in relation to how much above the basic level an institution intends to charge. We also asked him to report to Government on his experiences of approving Access Agreements and how well institutions have been able to respond to these new arrangements, including any additional powers or requirements that may be needed in order to secure rapid progress. In the longer term we will also discuss these issues with the new Director.

Secondary information