Ultimately, we will return to that and have similar arrangements for students in this country. Labour should steal them. That is a good message for the Minister. He should also be aware that many of them are writing to me to tell me how poor morale is within the higher education sector. The product that they provide will inevitably suffer as more industrial disputes take place and other problems of morale arise.
Friend makes two excellent points.
Expansion is pointless without sufficient investment to ensure quality. The sad fact is that every year since 1997 there has been a reduction per student in the amount of money for their education. The Prime Minister recently announced that his ambition was to have 50 per cent. That is meaningless unless we are told where all those people are to come from. At the moment, the demand simply does not exist.