---

Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

I endorse the arguments eloquently set out by noble Lords, especially the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. As this is the first occasion on which I have spoken in this Committee, I declare my interest as chief executive of Universities UK. Noble Lords who have had experience of the higher education sector can probably imagine the reaction if it was proposed that the Higher Education Funding Council should be given the power to direct university governors to dismiss senior staff of universities. It is possible to have a lengthy and interesting debate about the definition of public and private bodies, but as the Association of Colleges and, indeed, the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, have pointed out, universities and colleges are now defined as private sector bodies by, among others, the Office for National Statistics. Many of our universities receive a large proportion of their funding from the public purse, some of them up to 70 per cent from the Government in the form of support for teaching and research. They are quite properly accountable for the use of those funds, but they remain autonomous institutions, responsible for their own financial management, their admissions, their academic standards and their compliance with the law. Centrally managed systems of higher education exist in Europe. The Government could look to France as a model where appointments and dismissals are a matter for civil servants. It is just that I do not think that is a very effective way of managing a very important sector of education. I find it odd that Ministers are arguing that on the one hand colleges should be trusted and their status enhanced by the measures in Clause 19, which we will come on to later, and on the other proposing a measure that seems to me to argue precisely the opposite of that trust. Giving the LSC the power to act effectively as a shadow governing body is not conducive to good governance, any more than it would be proper to allow shadow directors to operate in the context of companies. The governing bodies of colleges, as of universities, currently have the ultimate responsibility of the effective management of their institutions, including meeting the statutory responsibilities and appointing or dismissing senior staff. I must ask, as have several other noble Lords: what is the Government’s evidence that this has not been effective in the further education sector? It would be helpful for us to understand this a bit better if the Minister could give an example of where those powers might have been exercised. It is important to say clearly, before we reach what I imagine will be the rather choppy waters of Clause 19, that my opposition to Clause 17 as it is currently drafted is entirely compatible with my desire to see the many fruitful partnerships between further and higher education institutions protected and encouraged. Universities want strong partners that are properly supported, but not micromanaged, by the Government and the LSC. I support the amendments tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Sharp and Lady Walmsley, opposite, which would remove the power of the LSCs to direct a governing body to dismiss members of staff. I agree with Amendment No. 42, that the LSC should be empowered to provide advice, not direction.