Gavin Williamson has suggested universities should not be charging the full £9,250 per year tuition fees if they are failing to deliver what students “expect”, including in person-teaching.
The education secretary also stressed that the government expected all institutions to return to face-to-face seminars and lectures in the next academic year, unless there were “unprecedented reasons” not to do so.
His comments came as tens of thousands of students across the country began opening their A-Level results, with reports that a greater proportion could receive the top grades under the temporary assessment system.
Mr Williamson said it was his “hope” to return to standard examinations for the qualification in 2022, but the cabinet minister did not rule out teacher assessed grades forming part of the grading system next year.
But quizzed on Sky News on whether it was appropriate for universities to be charging full fees while students were learning online, the cabinet minister said the government had made clear all institutions can move back to face-to-face teaching, adding: “That’s what we want to see”.
He later added: “If universities are not delivering what students expect then actually they shouldn’t be charging the full fees.”
Mr Williamson said the Office for Students (OfS) was targeting universities with low quality courses and that the government would give the organisation “all the power and all the backing in order to pursue those universities that aren’t delivering enough for students that are paying their fees”.
Despite repeated calls from some university students for a partial refund over a lack of access to in-person teaching and student halls due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, the Department for Education has previously insisted refunds are a matter for the institutions.
Mr Williamson added: “Universities are autonomous institutions, our guidance is clear, our direction is clear and we do expect all universities, unless there is unprecedented reasons, to be moving back to a situation of actually delivering lessons, lectures face-to-face”.
“I think universities have got to stand up their own offer to their students,” he added.
“They have the flexibility and the ability to deliver face-to-face lectures and expect them to be delivering face-to-face lectures. They are autonomous institutions — I don’t have control over them — but we would expect universities to be delivering a high quality teaching experience.”
Peter Kyle, Labour’s shadow schools minister, however, said he was “shocked” at the education secretary’s remarks, adding: “The reason there hasn’t been much face-to-face teaching is because Gavin Williamson has been preventing it for the last period.
“Just bear in mind that I had vice chancellors calling me saying pubs were open, restaurants were open, people were allowed to gather outside, but universities were prevented from government policy, from Gavin Williamson, from having seminars inside again.”
He told Sky News: “The reason there has been so much chaos and ambiguity about the way things are taught in universities is because of the policies of Gavin Williamson.
“There’s still a lot of uncertainty going into this term, so if class sizes and the way classes are taught is disrupted going into the autumn because of government policy, then if there is a financial cost to that then Gavin Williamson should be stumping up for it.”
