Dear Colleague,
We’ve made it to the end of the parliamentary and the university year. It’s been one of the more interesting periods in recent parliamentary history and we are left with a lot of changes and some things that remain the same.
Higher Education policy has returned to the Department for Education, but Science and Research remains with the newly formed Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Jo Johnson MP remains the Minister for Universities and Science although his role will now of course be split between the two departments.
The Higher Education and Research Bill also continues, the Second Reading of which took place on Tuesday 19 July and it moves onto Committee Stage in September. Members of the group from both Houses look forward to scrutinising the Bill as it makes its way through Parliament.
The group has had many successful meetings over the last year culminating in our Summer Reception last month where we heard from the Minister for Universities and Science and the Shadow Minister for Higher Education. We intend to keep this work going and to provide a number of opportunities for all members to discuss the topical issues which are affecting the sector at the moment. The groups next meeting dates are below, please do put this in diaries and come along. If you have an opinion to share, or information that you think group members would find useful, please do send this onto the Secretariat who can ensure that this is passed to all members, or provide the group with a blog post that we can publicise on your behalf. In a tricky time for the sector with the first major piece of legislation since 1992 the more information that parliamentarians have to scrutinise the Bill the better.
And finally, I do hope you all have the opportunity for some sort of a summer break. This regular update will be back when the House returns in September.
Roberta Blackman-Woods MP
Chair, All-Party Parliamentary University Group