Mandelson rallies students to be choosy

Lord Mandelson has urged students to be “pickier” about their university choices, saying they should be more demanding to boost quality in higher education.

More competition between universities will encourage them to improve and tailor courses to suit students, the Business Secretary said.

He warned that if students are expected to pay more for higher education they are entitled to receive more from the system.

His comments are likely to be taken as an indication that the Government will consider raising the £3,225 cap on tuition fees.

Answering questions at the CBI’s Higher Education Summit in central London today, Lord Mandelson suggested that universities, courses or lecturers which fail to live up to students’ expectations will be scrapped.

He said: “I hope, that without rejoining our student population to take to the barricades, that they become pickier, choosier and more demanding consumers of the higher education experience. Therefore teacher quality and the quality of the teaching experience is going to become more important.”

He said Government and industry will need to be more demanding and to monitor and scrutinise more on behalf of students.

Lord Mandelson added: “If there are people, or approaches or systems that are failing then we have got to be prepared to call time on those people or those systems or those approaches. That’s not painless but then never is it meant to be painless.

“It’s meant to bring about those sorts of changes which people are going to rightly demand.”