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Higher Education Fees

Opposition Members who follow these arguments closely have often made the following argument. ““We acknowledge,”” they say, ““that universities will continue to have high levels of income, but you're replacing public funding with private funding, and this is””—in some sense—““ideological.”” [Hon. Members: ““It is!””] That is a debating point, and I am happy to take it on. At present, roughly 60% of the income of universities comes from the public sector, through different funding streams. The rest comes from private sources—something that the previous Government were trying to encourage. That will be reversed: in future, roughly 40% of university funding will come from the public sector and 60% will come from the private sector. I am keen to encourage more private funding of universities, which is why I have spoken to the director general of the CBI. He is approaching all his members to ensure that we have a significantly higher level of employer support for apprenticeships, sandwich courses and other—[Interruption.]