4.23 Higher education, offering high quality and high standards, has a central role to play in the Learning Age. It enables young people to complete their initial education up to the highest levels and equips them for work. It provides for an increasing number of mature entrants both as full-time and part-time students. It works with employers to provide them and their employees with the skills they will increasingly need and with high quality strategic and applied research which benefits both the economy and our national life.

4.24 Our record in winning major science awards is proof of the excellence of our universities and UK higher education's information technology network - JANET and super-JANET - is among the most advanced in the world. We want more people to have the chance to experience the excellence of higher education for themselves. Our universities make a major contribution to the country's research effort. They produce and disseminate new knowledge and understanding, both for their own sake and for use in developing and exploiting applications and technologies which enhance the UK's competitiveness, prosperity and quality of life. The Government is committed to maintaining a world class science and research base.

4.25 We must build on the expertise of our universities to ensure that the most advanced knowledge and techniques are transferred into competitive economic success including at regional and local levels. This involves universities and colleges sharing their expertise with industry and services in a pioneering way. An example of this is Technopole run by a partnership involving Sheffield's two universities, the city's science and technology parks, local industry and research and testing organisations. The Technopole network is helping firms throughout the UK and abroad to solve metals and materials manufacturing problems.

4.26 Universities and higher education colleges educated 2.8 million students in 1996-97. Less than a quarter were from the group which used to be the mainstay of the old universities - young people studying full-time for a qualification. Of those pursuing a qualification, 64 per cent were mature students and 37 per cent part-timers. Nearly one million people enrol with higher education institutions not to gain a qualification, but to meet a particular skill need or fill a gap in their knowledge, or just because they wanted to learn. Higher education is a major contributor to local, regional and national economic growth and regeneration.

4.27 The Government remains committed to the principle that anyone who has the capability for higher education should have the opportunity to benefit from it. The role of universities and colleges in lifelong learning will be reinforced by lifting the present cap on numbers. The additional numbers in higher education, which will increase participation by mature students and young people, will allow us both to meet the expected demand from young people and widen access to higher education. We expect more than half the additional places to be taken by mature students, including those who did not achieve traditional A level qualifications at school. Some will join from special access courses organised jointly with further education colleges, and many will seek part-time degrees. We will monitor take-up by mature students and look at the use of access funds to support them.

4.28 We wish universities, higher and further education to be beacons of learning in their local communities. At today's participation rates, 60 per cent of school-leavers can expect to enter higher education at some time in their lives. We propose that higher education should play an even bigger part in future by:

• providing more places to meet demand;

• offering a wide range of courses up to post-graduate level;

• ensuring high standards so as to enhance the employability of graduates;

• improving participation by offering opportunities later in life to those who missed out first time around;

• contributing more to the economy and being more responsive to the needs of business;

• collaborating effectively with other institutions, other learning providers and with the world of work; and

• making itself more accessible by exploiting new technology and flexible delivery with facilities available at times convenient to students.

4.29 The future development of higher education was the subject of a report by the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, chaired by Sir Ron (now Lord) Dearing, published in July 1997. The Report - Higher Education in the learning society - emphasised the key role that higher education has to play in helping deliver the Learning Age. The National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education was set up to make recommendations on how the purposes, shape, structure, size and funding of higher education, including support for students, should develop to meet the needs of the United Kingdom over the next 20 years. It also dealt with staff training and development, qualifications and standards, research, information technology, and governance. The Government has already responded to its recommendations on funding and student support, and our comprehensive response is published in a separate policy statement alongside this consultation paper.

Opening up access

4.30 Our priority is to reach out and include those who have been under-represented in higher education. They include people with disabilities and young people from semi-skilled or unskilled family backgrounds and from poorer localities. Although 54 per cent of young people from professional and managerial homes go on to higher education, only 17 per cent of those from semi-skilled and unskilled family backgrounds do so. Their relatively low participation results mainly from under-attainment at earlier stages of education. We have already started to tackle this, and our plans for further education will enable more people to go on to higher education.

4.31 We also need to identify the reasons that lead some young people not to consider higher education; for example, why some ethnic minority groups are under-represented as are women in some important disciplines. While men and women from ethnic minorities are generally better represented in higher education than in the general population, Bangladeshi women and Afro-Caribbean men remain under-represented, as do men and women from the most deprived parts of the country.

4.32 We will particularly encourage better links between schools and further education colleges in disadvantaged areas and universities or higher education colleges. We want students from families without a background of going to university to have more support and encouragement to stay in education after 16, raise their sights, and fulfil their potential by progressing to higher education. We are discussing with Oxford and Cambridge the part they can play in widening access.

4.33 The Dearing Committee made a number of recommendations on under-represented groups which we wish to see implemented. They include: targeting additional funding at universities and colleges with a commitment to widening participation and plans to improve access; joint further and higher education projects to address low expectations and low achievement and to promote progression to higher education; and incentives from funding bodies for the enrolment of students from particularly disadvantaged localities. The Higher Education Funding Council for England has allocated £2 million in 1998/99 and £4 million in 1999/2000 to support such projects, and is considering significant changes in the way it funds teaching to reward institutions committed to widening access and outreach. We will be discussing with HEFCE further steps to achieve a substantial change, building on the standards agenda we are pursuing in schools and colleges.

4.34 Many higher education institutions have a tradition of outreach programmes for adults which provide valuable opportunities for mature students to take courses, which do not lead to degrees, on a part-time basis. Some are designed to help adults without qualifications reach the necessary level to enrol for a degree, giving them a hand-up to higher education. Other courses lead to certificates or diplomas which are self-standing and enable people, who in most cases have not had the benefit of higher education, to gain from the experience of study at a higher education institution without the greater commitment of enrolling for a degree. This work is a vital contribution to lifelong learning, and we will expect the Funding Councils, universities and colleges of higher education to attach high priority to its continuation.

4.35 Our aims for higher education are to achieve wider access and high standards. We have already provided an extra £125 million for 1998-99 to preserve and enhance quality, and an additional £40 million to improve access and help disadvantaged groups. This includes £4 million to make a start on growth in the number of places on diploma courses, mainly in further education. This action has started to address the funding crisis facing higher education and to focus resources more effectively.