Just before Parliament was dissolved for the election, the government passed the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. This act alters the regulation of Universities, potentially increasing competition by allowing new institutions to award degrees.

The Act also institutes the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) as a way of assessing the teaching standards in Universities. Those Universities which reach the standards required under this framework will be allowed to increase their fees in line with inflation.

The Act has already been controversial, with some critics suggesting that it marketizes higher education, will enable unscrupulous providers to undermine existing institutions, and is a way of charging students more.

Please join us and our expert panel to discuss the implications of the Act for the future of Higher Education in Britain, and what Labour's response to the Act should be. The event will take place at 18.30 on Tuesday 17th October at the Grimmond Room in Portcullis House. Please allow 15 minutes to get through security.

Panel:

Dr Diana Beech - Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI)

Dr Diana Beech joined HEPI from the Department for Education in a new role as the Director of Policy and Advocacy in March 2017. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, and has also held post-doc positions at the University of British Columbia and the Technical University of Berlin.

Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods MP

Roberta Blackman-Woods has been MP for the City of Durham since 2005. Prior to entering Parliament she was an academic having worked in social sciences at Newcastle University, as Dean of Social and Labour Studies at Ruskin College, Oxford and as Dean and Professor of Social Policy at the University of Northumbria.

Helen Lock

Helen Lock is a freelance journalist with a particular interest in education. She was previously a commissioning editor at the Guardian’s Higher Education Network.