Quality and standards underpin all forms of learning. Learners at all levels and at all stages of their lives should be able to rely on the very best provision, wherever and whatever they study. The Government welcomes the emphasis the Committee has placed on these issues and endorses the Committee’s view that the higher education sector as a whole should retain responsibility for the definition and setting of standards, including a thorough reinvigoration of the external examiner system, and especially at the threshold level.