Style over substance: Lords economics committee to find out how students decide what and where to study

These are some of the issues the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee will be exploring with witnesses on Tuesday 28 November 2017.

At 3.35pm the Committee will hear from:

• Dr Professor Julia Buckingham, Vice-Chancellor and President, Brunel University
• Professor Sir Keith Burnett, Vice Chancellor, Sheffield University
• Professor Graham Virgo QC, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, Cambridge University
• Professor James Stirling CBE FRS, Provost, Imperial College London.

Other questions the Committee is likely to ask include:

• The University of Cambridge's written evidence stated that all their home students are subsidised regardless of the subject studied. To what extent do classroom-based subjects cross-subsidise more expensive courses?
• In her oral evidence, Student Room's Hannah Morrish said that students were “drowning in information and starving for wisdom”. How well informed are prospective students? Is the Teaching Excellence Framework helpful?
• In his evidence, Open University's Peter Horrocks said that “People regularly refer to 18-year olds, but if you look at the entirety of the potential students, the number of students from disadvantaged areas has fallen.” Have the 2012 reforms to higher education increased social mobility?
• Has the current system been designed with too much emphasis on students being young and full-time?
• What are the pros and cons of a combined funding system for higher and further education and how could this be achieved?

This evidence session will start at 3.35pm on Tuesday 28 November 2017 in Committee Room 1 of the House of Lords.

These sessions are part of the Committee's ongoing inquiry into the economics of higher, further and technical education.

The Committee recently published the written evidence it has accepted into the inquiry. Click here and select ‘ View all' to read this evidence.