This is a challenging agenda. Universities and colleges, employers and employees, the private sector and Government will all need to work together to create a learning society in which many more people can benefit from world class education and training. The Committee set out a vision of a world class higher education system combining rigour and economic relevance. At the heart of this vision is the idea of a compact between universities and colleges, individual students, the world of work and society itself. The Government shares the Committee s vision, which was widely supported in the many responses to the consultation on the Report.
Higher education is an investment in our future.
The Government has already taken difficult decisions to reform the funding of higher education in order to ensure that universities and colleges can continue to offer high quality learning, teaching and research. The Teaching and Higher Education Bill, currently before Parliament, will give effect to these proposals. These build on the Committee s proposals and on the proposals in the Labour Party s evidence to the Committee, Lifelong Learning, and the Government s manifesto. The new funding arrangements are based on the principle that the costs of higher education should be shared between those who benefit. But the Government has introduced important safeguards.