Willetts new Minister of State for Universities

by Veronika Leitner

David Willetts, the Tory MP for Havant, Hampshire has been appointed Minister of State for Universities and Science.

He will work closely with the Lib Dem MP Vincent Cable, who is chairing the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) - the department that will determine the future funding of Higher Education in the UK.

Willetts has been an MP for the Conservative Party since 1992, serving as University shadow spokesman and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

He is also a member of the Council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Ditchley Foundation, which organises conferences between English-speaking countries on international issues.

Welcomed

The appointment has been welcomed by the university group Million+, who submitted the latest evidence to the cross-party review on Higher Education.

Million+ chief executive, Pam Tatlow, described the biggest challenge for the new Conservative and Lib Dem coalition team as avoiding “department cuts that would affect universities and students, and put at risk the social mobility that both parties signed up to.”

Two thirds of the £20 billion BIS budget is reserved for universities and their student support.

University groups will face heavy criticism if institutions of higher education suffer from the planned cuts in public spending, as will Liberal Democrats, who relied heavily on student votes.

However, the death of their ‘free education policy’ was amongst the prerequisites for entering a coalition government with the Tories.

Universities are also struggling to cope with the record numbers of applicants expected to enter higher education this year.

More undergraduates have decided to enrol, hoping to secure one of the 20,000 extra places promised to by the former Labour government.

This has been a particular issue at the London College of Fashion where applications have doubled.