Commenting on the Government’s response to the IUSS select committee’s report on students and universities, Professor Ruth Farwell, Chair of the higher education representative body GuildHE and Vice-Chancellor of Buckinghamshire New University, said:

“We are delighted to see the Government’s strong stance in support of diversity in the higher education sector.  We applaud its clear statements that it ‘does not believe that diversity equals inconsistency’ in higher education (para 111), and that it ‘agrees that diversity is key to the future success of the higher education sector’ (para 114).

“GuildHE has always stood for the fact that a diverse range of HE institutions and courses is a strength rather than a weakness in our system.

“Not all students are the same – they come from a wide range of social and educational backgrounds, and their needs and aspirations are varied. They need a variety of routes into HE and a choice of different types of courses and institutions.

“What must not and cannot vary is the quality and standards of degree courses and the arrangements in place to ensure those standards are maintained at an appropriate level. Students, whoever they are and wherever they study must be able to rely on the standards of the degrees they are awarded. No one is pretending that every institution and every degree course is the same, but we do firmly believe that the degrees of our member institutions meet the standards required in higher education as a whole.”

For more information, please contact:

Professor Ruth Farwell

Tel:  01494 605113

Email: ruth.farwell@bucks.ac.uk