B

Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 24 February 2026

Debate

Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper

Contribution

Although the noble Earl did not revert to the language that some of his colleagues have used about university degrees, I share the view that, if we are expecting both young people and the state to invest in higher education, it needs to be of high quality. That is why I support the Office for Students in its current work to have a better definition of “quality” for higher education courses and why we have made it clear that we will want to link future increases in tuition fees to that measure of quality.

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