It is a pleasure to be able to give my hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield a bit of a break this morning, given that he has been doing so much hard work in the past hour or so. The amendments essentially relate to the role of the Office for Students. I have been in my role a short time—slightly longer than the Minister—but I have to say that I have some reservations about what the Office for Students is doing presently. I understand its remit and purpose, but I am not sure what direction it seems to be taking us in. That direction comes from its leadership. It is a shame that the chief executive is standing down. We need more continuity there, and I await the appointment of her replacement with great interest.

We have tabled several amendments. Amendment 60 would require the Office for Students to bear in mind mitigating measures—for example, the past 22 months of the covid-19 pandemic and the impact it has had on students and therefore on outcomes. When assessing quality, it is important that quality is understood in the context of such factors. In the case of the past two years, there has clearly been a huge impact on students and their ability to learn, despite the best efforts of lecturers and the teaching profession to deliver as much as possible as well as possible in really challenging circumstances, whether face to face or mostly online. So much of the normal teaching framework has been greatly challenged.

The most recent pilot of the student covid insight survey showed that students’ experience has changed dramatically because of coronavirus. On the academic experience, 29% of students reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their experience in the first term. Statistics from the Library highlight employment levels for those aged 16 to 24; I am not talking about outcomes. It is easy to look at what has happened to employment as an obvious measure of outcome, but employment levels have fallen 9%, which has clearly had a huge impact on the student outcome as a result of the national crisis.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has also found that the impact of the pandemic has been very likely to disrupt the career progression of those in the early stages, with many graduates potentially delaying their entry to the labour market by staying in education. Research by jobs website Milkround provides us with further evidence. It shows that, compared with the typical 60%, just 18% of graduates are securing jobs this year—a third of the figure we would normally expect.

The purpose of the amendment is to identify and recognise the need to establish a link between what we might call force majeure events such as the pandemic and ensuring that the OfS is more flexible when considering student outcomes. It cannot be a static metric. That point is echoed by a significant representative body for the higher education sector, Universities UK, which states:

“Employment outcomes will also be impacted by national and local economic conditions.”

It is important that the OfS bears that in mind in any framework that it establishes for outcomes.

Amendment 56 has been tabled because we want to see true and substantive consultation with the higher education sector before the outcomes are defined. The Government should talk to the Universities UK representative body, which has been exploring the development of a framework in England for an institutional programme and course review process centred on best practice. Given that Universities UK represents 140 institutions, collaborating with them and exploring the work that already exists would be a sensible start for the Government to focus on. Universities UK also says that it is “unclear whether the baselines” of minimum assessment of standards

“will be subject to thorough consultation.”

I hope the Government will start a consultation programme with all the representative bodies to understand how they may structure student outcomes.

We cannot afford this to become some simplistic metric that is based purely on initial earnings in the first year of employment, which is one such measure that has been proposed. Amendment 57 allows the OfS to publish data that takes into account the geographical and socioeconomic differences, which I am sure you, Mrs Miller, would appreciate, and how important such differences are in determining student outcomes. These differences must be considered because where someone starts and where they end up shows the improvement that is achieved through the education process. There is much variation, as we know, in all those factors, and they are significant in determining outcomes.

Unfortunately, it seems that, as it stands, the provision will adopt a “one-size-fits-all approach”—not my words, but those of the Open University. I am concerned that if we do not consider the regions and the types of students in this process, we will dissuade universities from accepting students from low-income backgrounds, who are more likely to drop out of their course because of outside factors.

The metric of retention may seem like an obvious and simple measure to use in terms of the quality or outcome of the course, but there are many factors that come into play. I stress that the Government need to consult with the sector to understand the complexities involved in arriving at the metrics to measure outcomes. As it stands, the clause will have a big impact on the smaller, more local universities that often take students from lower economic and more challenging social backgrounds.

Amendment 58 is an exploratory amendment to see if the OfS will probe into individual courses or modules. Various questions are being raised about how a one-size-fits-all approach to assessing student outcomes will be applied outside of a three-year degree. A three-year degree is a simple thing to measure, but are the Government and the OfS seeking to measure the component parts, that is, the individual modules taken in a course? Is that the granularity the Government are considering for measuring outcomes? That is something that we clearly need to know. In particular, with certain courses being delivered on a modular basis—say with the Open University or other providers—that will be extremely relevant.

The clause is currently a permissive clause and does not formally extend the OfS’s powers, but it does clarify the levers available. My question to the Minister is, will he provide more clarity on how far that power will stretch, particularly in the light of the comments made just a few days ago by the chair of the Office for Students, Lord Wharton, on the second OfS strategy that the body will be more assertive in intervening on universities and colleges to uphold their obligations? The chair’s language is perhaps slightly more aggressive than I would have expected, but we need to understand what is being considered because it seems that he is the person who is very much directing the course of higher and further education.

What considerations will be given to the UK quality code and the reputation of UK higher education? New analysis of the economic impact of international students in the UK has shown that the net impact of just one cohort of international students in 2018-19 was worth nearly £26 billion to the UK economy. The majority of overseas undergraduate students on STEM courses—51% of respondents—said that they chose a UK institution because of its reputation for high-quality education, with another 29% saying that a qualification from this country offers excellent career prospects in their discipline. Just over a fifth attributed their choice to the presence of friends and relatives, according to research from the British Council published the other day.

The amendments are designed to ensure that the Government open themselves to true consultation with the sector to get its views and understand the work it is already doing and the great number of factors that we all appreciate come into play and impact on a student’s outcomes. That is important if we are to get a proper form of measuring university outcomes rather than using a simplistic measure for different universities and colleges when they are already doing a terrific job in their regions, perhaps against the odds.