My Lords, I suspect that the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, was quite relieved when the noble Lord, Lord Kakkar, delivered his intervention—because, up to that point, he was very much cast in the role of guest at his own party. As ever, I enjoyed his contribution. His amendment is an important one; it highlights the need to pursue transparency, accountability, equality of teaching and how it is to be assessed—issues that you would think cannot fail to command the support of all noble Lords, although I suspect that the Minister will find a way to disagree.
I diverge a little from the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, who prayed in aid the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment as products of high-quality university scholarship of their ages. I have to say that two out of three ain’t bad—but, as a fellow Scot, he will know what I mean when I say that I hae ma doots about the Reformation.
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We are indebted to the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, and the noble Baroness, Lady Garden of Frognal, for their amendments, because the remainder of this lively and informed debate has focused on the contentious issue of international students. The wealth of experience evidenced in the debate and the vigour with which those contributions were delivered should be weighed heavily by the Minister.
I do not want to pre-empt the debate—although many noble Lords have done so—that will take place later in this stage of the Bill, on Amendments 462 to 464, but it is worth taking the opportunity to underline the importance of international students to the higher education sector. As many other noble Lords have said, it appears that the Government still do not fully appreciate the value to many institutions—not simply, as the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, the more prestigious ones—of the contribution made by students from abroad. I was very struck by the point just made by my noble friend Lord Judd, who said that while the financial contribution is of course important the general contribution made by the presence of students from other countries is hugely valuable. Of course the fee income generated is important: in some cases, at some institutions, it helps to subsidise the fees of domestic students. But the benefits of integration and the enrichment of the student experience provided by their presence should not be lightly discarded.
I said that the Government do not appreciate fully those benefits—at least that is their official position. Without wishing to make too much of the issue, I have to say that I found myself unusually in agreement with the Foreign Secretary when he said very publicly, as is his wont, in a recent speech, that overseas students should be excluded from the immigration statistics.
That is certainly the position of the Labour Party, and I know that it is shared by many others in this Chamber and further afield. Of course, the Foreign Secretary was quickly slapped down, but he is right—it is common sense to treat international students as a benefit to, not a burden on, this country.
This group of amendments places a duty on the OfS to help institutions to plan their needs in terms of international students and to report on various aspects of the overall numbers and fees charged. That would certainly enhance the Bill. I somehow have a feeling that the Minister will either say that they are unnecessary because they are too prescriptive and go beyond those matters on which the OfS should reasonably be required to report, or perhaps that they are simply too burdensome —a word that seems to be used increasingly.
I say to him in good faith that he and his colleague the Minister of State, who is not here at the moment but who to his credit has spent a great deal of time following these debates, are really up against it in convincing noble Lords that, as proposed, the Office for Students is an appropriate vehicle for regulating the sector. It will only make that task more onerous if he chooses to cast aside such modest amendments as those that we are considering in this group. Earlier today, the Minister sought to reassure noble Lords that he will reflect on all amendments. That will be of very limited value if, at a later date, he simply comes back on Report or in letters to say that, having reflected, he is not minded to accept the amendments.
As I said, the substantive debate on international students is for another day but, given the great concern among universities across the sector at the threat to the international student intake, without even considering the threat to research, the Minister would be well advised to undertake his reflection on those amendments in advance and place himself in a position to offer a positive response at that time.