Cabinet Reshuffle 2014: Who's in and Who's out?
Department of Business, Innovation and Skills
Greg Clarke replaces David Willetts as Minister for Universities and Science. Mr Clark will also retain his current role as Minister of State at the Cabinet Office with responsibilities for Cities
Matthew Hancock appointed Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Minister of State for Portsmouth
George Freeman, formerly Government Advisor on Life Sciences becomes Minister for Life Sciences
Ed Vaisey appointed Minister responsibility for digital industries and retains position as Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Nick Boles appointed Minister of State for Skills, Enterprise and Equalities jointly with the Department for Education with responsibilities for further education, skills, apprenticeships, and the qualification reform programme
Baroness Neville-Rolfe appointed Minister for Intellectual Property
Department for Education (DfE)
Nicky Morgan, former Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Willetts replaces Michael Gove as Secretary of State for Education
Nick Gibb returns to the Department as Minister of State for Schools
Sam Gyimah, former Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Cameron appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Other moves
Liz Truss moves from DfE to replace Owen Patterson as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
ichael Fallon moves from joint Minister of State at BIS and DECC to Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence
Nicky Morgan and Liz Truss join Home Secretary Theresa May; International Development Secretary Justine Greening; and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers as female members of the Cabinet. Three others attend Cabinet; Baroness Warsai; Employment Minister Esther McVey; and Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Stowell of Beeston. A full list of appointments is available here.
Schools and Education
Pearson is redeveloping its BTEC National Applied Science qualifications for 16-19 year old students in schools and FE colleges, and is asking for views on which practical skills, knowledge and technical competencies should be included in the new qualifications. Contact Elena Softley (elena.softley@pearson.com) for more details.
The UK Digital Skills Taskforce has published its interim report, expressing concern about the growing shortage of digital skills in the economy citing Science Council research which estimates the ICT workforce will grow by 39% by 2030. The Taskforce recommends that business and Government need to do more to ensure people of all ages are equipped for the ‘digital revolution’. One of the report’s headline concerns is the outdated view of what a digital career looks like. Aligned to this is the fact that digital jobs are male-dominated, and calls for employers to take more responsibility to improve diversity in the workplace.
A report from the Social Market Foundation think tank examining the earnings premium of privately-educated children calls for greater access for disadvantaged pupils to independent schools through selection on merit, with Government subsiding those from poorer backgrounds.
Higher Education
PA Consulting’s annual higher education survey highlights Vice-Chancellors’ concerns that Government policy is the greatest risk to the stability of the HE system, particularly around immigration, the UK’s vulnerability to international shocks and its potential withdrawal from the European Union.
The House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee’s report into student loans has said that the system is quickly reaching a tipping point for financial viability, with BIS widely underestimating the scale of future public debt as a result of larger student loans.
The centre-right think tank Bright Blue has launched a petition to remove international students from UK net migration targets form 2015. The petition comes after several recent Parliamentary reports recommended the same policy. The Government have so far declined to implement the recommendation. Bright Blue has also launched an immigration commission, asking for submissions of written evidence. The commission’s subsequent report will inform the Conservative Party’s manifesto for the 2015 general election.
The House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee has published the Government’s response to its inquiry into International STEM students. The Committee’s report drew attention to the Science Council’s concern that decisions to withdraw funding from a number of STEM higher education courses threatens the sustainability of many postgraduate courses, and recommended that BIS establish a working group to review the impact of actual and potential reductions in the numbers of international students on the provision, sustainability and quality of taught STEM Masters courses. The Government states that it will ask the International Education Council to look at the annual trends of international students entering the UK, and in conjunction with BIS and HEFCE assess the impacts on the availability of courses across the higher education sector.
Skills and Careers
In the lead up to the Labour Party’s annual National Policy Forum a number of policy announcements and reports with significance to education and skills were published.
Lord Adonis has published his Growth Review recommending greater devolved funding for innovation, skills and education policy. The recommendations include increasing the number of high quality apprenticeships for young people, including trebling the number of STEM youth apprenticeships by 2020, with funding only provided to employers for schemes accredited by professional bodies. Other recommendations include the expansion of University Technical Colleges; a national ‘Teach Next’ recruitment and teacher training scheme for experienced career switchers, focused on STEM subjects; and a focus in further education colleges on teaching technician-level skills.
The Science Council met with Lord Adonis in January 2014 to contribute to his review. The meeting focused on the quality of the UK’s education and skills system, particularly how Government can nurture higher-level technician and apprenticeship skills across the whole economy.
The Local Government Innovation Taskforce, initiated by Labour leader Ed Miliband in 2013 has reported. Similar to Lord Adonis’s review the Taskforce calls for more decision-making powers and funding to be transferred to local government. It asks for further education skills funding for 16-19 year olds and 19+ to be devolved to partnerships between local authorities at the city and regional level.
Labour leader, Ed Miliband announced proposals for a Labour Government to introduce new Technical Degrees in higher education. Degrees will be designed and delivered in partnership between universities and employers, who will also sponsor young people who have excelled in their apprenticeship.
Labour MP’s Paul Blomfield and Nic Dakin, both members of the All-Party Parliamentary Apprenticeship Group have written a joint article about aligning further and higher education policy to drive innovation and improve skills. Nic Dakin is also a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning.
In other news…
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills further education workforce strategy has been published. Key priorities include improvements in English and Maths, greater employer-engagement, better governance and leadership to drive up excellence, and greater use of technologies to support teaching and learning.
The Association of Colleges has published a report on how further education colleges can contribute to the provision of higher technical and vocational education. Among its recommendations is the creation of a technical accreditation council to accredit colleges and others that want to award higher technical and vocational qualifications; and endorsement by the Higher Education Funding Council for colleges and universities that develop local vocational progression routes.
An interim report from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) highlights the urgent need to tackle long-standing and deep-rooted structural skills and employment challenges in the UK economy. The report is another to argue – most recently in the Institute for Public Policy Research report, ‘Wining the global race’ - that the UK economy is becoming increasingly ‘hour-glass’ in shape, with the majority of people finding employment in low-skilled, short-term or in high-skilled, high-value jobs with little in between. A final analysis will be published in autumn 2014.
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences and Medical Research Councils in partnership with the Society of Biology are undertaking a survey of vulnerable and emerging research skills and capabilities in the biosciences and medical sciences. The survey is open now until 5th September 2014. For more information and to fill out the survey visit the survey website.
Science and Industry
The House of Commons Science & Technology Select Committee has published the Government’s response to its inquiry into horizon scanning, which was published in May 2014. The response disregards many of the Committee’s
recommendations, including its recommendation to move the Government Office for Science to the Cabinet Office to ensure, in the Committee’s opinion, the best use of scientific evidence across Government.
The House of Commons Science & Technology Select Committee also published its report into variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD), reporting concern that the Government has not done all it can to ensure the UK’s blood supply is free from contamination and urges the Government to conduct a review of the current and potential risks to future supply to inform future risk-reduction measures.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published a policy paper on the UK’s science profile in Antarctica 2014-2020. The vision places “multi-disciplinary” Antarctic environmental science at the heart of ‘responsible management’ of the planet as a means to understand and manage environmental change. The paper also emphasises the need to foster international relationships to set research priorities.
Other News
The former Chair of the Arup Group, Philip Dilley has been appointed the new chair of the Environment Agency. He will take over from Lord Smith of Finsbury in September when his term of office ends.
Professor Jane Elliot has been appointed the new Chief Executive and Deputy Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council, taking over from Professor Paul Boyle in October 2014. Professor Elliot is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Quantitative Social Sciences, at the Institute of Education, University of London.
