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Michelle Donelan speaking to @CommonsEd: asked whether govt would 'bail out' unis in trouble or 'restructure' towards 'skills needs in economy', she refers to 'restructuring regime' to be further detailed soon. 'Last resort scenario...There will be conditions attached.'
Donelan on key 'challenges and opportunities' in HE: 'changed in shaped by Covid', need to 'innovate and diversify' on income, focus on people's need to 'reskill and upskill', she wants to be 'incentivising part-time' and degree apprenticeships.
By mentioning part-time study, reskilling and upskilling post-crisis, Donelan managing to go further than her 'true social mobility' speech, in which there was total silence on these issues.
Donelan on v-c and senior uni staff pay cuts in Covid crisis of '10 up to 30 per cent'. She adds: 'I want to see that, hopefully, continue and be the start of something.'
Donelan returns to theme of speech: 'we don't necessarily want everybody to go to university...HE is not necessarily the best route for where you want to go in life.'
Donelan: focus should not be 'how many students go to university', but on students 'completing high-quality, academically rigorous courses that then lead to graduate jobs. That is the measure we should be looking at.'
Donelan asked which social groups are least likely to go to university and comes up with this answer: 'It doesn't matter about looking at which groups don't go to university.' It's about getting graduate jobs and 'what is in that student's best interests.'
Donelan: incentivising universities to provide degree apprenticeships will 'form part of our response to Augar later in the year'.
Donelan on universities and free speech: 'We are not excluding legislation...We can only have academic rigour and academic freedom of expression if we can have freedom of speech.'
