Comment on Conservative Policies : Conservative Universities and Skills Policy by Laurie Haynes.

I am a party member, I also work for the HEFCE.

I would be interested to receive brief answers to the following:

How can we reduce beaurocratic intervention futher and ensure we secure accountability for public expenditure? Currently our formal intervention is once annually, and we also have periodic reviews of teaching quality, student data and governance. It is hard to see what can be dropped.

What would the conservatives do to replace Train to Gain, Employer engagement and the Higher level Pathfinder projects? What is its view of the HEFCE/UUK/CBI ‘Stepping Higher’ report published last year?

What is the Conservatives’ model for administration of Futher Education, how would it differ from Labour’s proposed Skills Funding Agency, and how would it link with the administration of funding to HE?

David Willetts indicated, in response to the CBI report on HE this week, that the Conservatives are assisting in the development of a Website to assist students in making informed choices. We currently fund such a website, and I am interested to receive more detail.