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1,309 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDSATs: Pressure on StudentsNo, it is not. Notwithstanding the hon. Lady’s clever linking of your decade in the Chair with the age of children doing SATs, Mr Speaker, it is common practice around the world…24 Jun 2019HANSARDSATs: Pressure on StudentsI am not just saying this, but as it happens I last did one of the SATs papers—SPAG, or spelling, punctuation and grammar—on Thursday or Friday last week. As I said in an earlier…24 Jun 2019HANSARDSATs: Pressure on StudentsAssessment means that we can ensure that pupils everywhere are getting the standard of education that they should. Of course we want pupils to do their best but that should never…24 Jun 2019HANSARDOECD Programme for International Student AssessmentMay I start on the happy note of joining the hon. Lady in congratulating Mr McSorley on his upcoming retirement and wishing the best to the pupils and staff at schools across…24 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingThe hon. Lady is right: these are important proposals, and the question of how we provide learning for people later in their life is also important. I am not sure that what is…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingMy hon. Friend does great work on behalf of students in Cheltenham, and I know that he takes a close interest in these subjects. As I said earlier to my hon. Friend the Member for…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingThe hon. Lady is right about the gap between level 3 attainment in our country and the attainment in countries such as Germany. That is a long-standing issue, rather than one that…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingThe changes that we made in the move to maintenance loans increased the cash support available to young people starting at university by some 10%. There have been subsequent…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingNo, that is not correct. This is an independent panel report that feeds into the wider process of the Government’s review into post-18 education and its financing. As I said to…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingI am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving me an opportunity to pay tribute to all the work he did as universities Minister. The TEF is a very important reform and is part of the…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingI thank the hon. Lady for her questions. She asked a number of times whether I would guarantee to consider x, y or z, and I do absolutely guarantee to consider everything in the…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingWith permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the Government’s review of post-18 education and its funding—the first review since the Robbins report in 1963 to…04 Jun 2019HANSARDIndependent Panel Report on Post-18 Education and FundingToday I will provide a statement to the House, announcing that the independent panel, chaired by Philip Augar, set up to provide input to the post-18 review of education and…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingI not only respect and understand but celebrate university autonomy. I think the hon. Gentleman represents a university city so I am slightly surprised at his question, because of…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingI think the economists say “ceteris paribus”. Universities have a number of income streams, of which fee income is one. As I said earlier, a teaching grant already exists for two…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingI gently mention to the hon. Gentleman that in his work on the Education Committee he has had an opportunity to look at the variety of what is available in our higher education…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingI pay tribute to the work that my hon. Friend has done and the thought leadership he has shown in some of his writings on these subjects. He is absolutely right to identify the…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingThe hon. Lady will shortly meet the universities Minister in her all-party group on universities and will have an opportunity to discuss some of these things further. She…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingI believe that Ministers used often to stand at this Dispatch Box and say, “I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave a few moments ago,” but the Gentleman has just been…04 Jun 2019HANSARDPost-18 Education and FundingMy hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey) says, “Bring it on!”. Your intervention, Mr Speaker, also gives me an opportunity to say nice things about Buckingham, which is…04 Jun 2019