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Science in Higher Education

I do not accept that the proper publication of information about a school’s performance leads to a reduction in the study of science subjects. As the hon. Gentleman has raised the point, I will give him the opportunity to make it clear whether he is calling for the abolition of school league tables. If he is not—I do not believe that he is—I do not see the point of reporting those comments in the way that he has. Let me talk about the extra 200,000 students who are in our system today as compared with nine and a half years ago. Some 130,000 of those are studying science-related degrees. Recently, the Royal Society criticised the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s figures on science and maths graduates. I am always happy to talk to the Royal Society, but if we had wanted to present the best possible figures on the overall numbers of science students, we would have said that the increase was nearer to 190,000 since 1997. We used the figure of 130,000 to take account of the changes in methodology. The issue is what counts as science and the market share of some of the more traditional subjects. Science does not stand still and the fact that newer subjects, such as computer and biological sciences, have become more popular is not on its own something to be concerned about. There is no evidence that graduates in such subjects fail to get good, well-paid jobs or to contribute significantly to our overall science base. At the same time, we have acknowledged that we need to maintain national capacity in STEM subjects. I acknowledge that there have been several years of decline in those, but the figures for the past couple of years are encouraging. Last year we saw a significant increase in the figures for maths and chemistry, and that has been sustained this year. I want to see it increase further. It is in marked contrast to what went on previously, in major part because of some of the changes that we have made in the system. We have also—rightly in my view—made tough decisions to allow higher education providers to raise more money to support science and other subjects through variable fees. If the hon. Gentleman is calling for increased resources for universities, I will charitably remind him that the Conservative party opposed the introduction of variable fees, and it is that mechanism that will bring an additional net £1.35 billion into our universities.