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Higher Education

My Lords, I welcome all the thrust of my noble friend’s Statement as well as the bipartisanship and commitment to continuity in policy on higher education that we have seen today. While agreeing absolutely with him that universities have a duty to be responsive to their students and to provide information, choice, value for money and a high-quality educational experience, I ask him to share with the House his thoughts on the following. In a consumer culture—and my noble friend has just encouraged students to see themselves as customers of universities—and in a culture in which one person’s entry in Wikipedia is as good as another, how is the principle of academic and intellectual authority to be sustained, as well as an ethos of professional responsibility that reflects values other than those of the marketplace? If we raise the cap on student fees, as I believe it is absolutely necessary that we should, this problem will be intensified. So, will he say that people should not expect to be able to purchase academic goods, including good degrees, as they might purchase a car or other accoutrements of a lifestyle?