Today, the House of Lords convened for the third reading of the Higher Education and Research Bill to make final changes and ‘tidy up’ the Bill.
Amendments that aimed to make significant changes to the Bill were eventually withdrawn during the meeting, with only a few changes to wording made.
The main amendment discussed during the reading was that raised by Lord Wallace of Tankerness, who sought to add age’ to the list of protected characteristics which will be used to provide further understanding of the student life cycle. The Bill specifies that information should cover gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background. He added that age would ‘give us at least one tool to evaluate the progress that is being made in promoting part-time education’ which as suffered a ‘60% decrease’ from those aged between 31 and 60′. It was also suggested by
The amendment highlighted a further concern towards the ‘transparency duty’ of the OfS, which theViscount Younger of Leckie – who was speaking for the Government- pointed out has ‘generated much debate in both Houses’. He continued that the OfS will be asked ‘to consult on what other information should be published by institutions in the interest of widening access and participation’ and that ‘while the duty must remain balanced and proportionate, it is clear that greater transparency on characteristics such as age is desirable to support equality of opportunity through widening participation’.
He also noted that Government commits to looking at this issue further and will consult on the matter prior to the establishment of the OfS.
After the April Easter break, HERB will make its way back to the House of Commons for Members of Parliament to vote on amendments made by the peers over at the Lords.