Thread by @JohnnySRich

@michelledonelan appearing before @CommonsEd this morning.

@halfon4harlowMP starts by asking about compensation for students for lost learning under Covid.

Minister confirms no blanket arrangements and pays tribute to unis and their staff who pulled out all the stops.

@michelledonelan @CommonsEd @halfon4harlowMP The next question's about antisemitic speaker David Miller being allowed a platform at Bristol Uni – a blind alley for Donelan. She can't condemn the uni and speaker, while maintaining her departmental line about freedom of speech. Her way out is basically to buck-pass to OfS.

@michelledonelan @CommonsEd @halfon4harlowMP Follow-up questions on antisemitism & adopting the IHRA definition and whether she should be intervening at Bristol & elsewhere.

She just can't win here because of govt’s agenda about freedom of speech in unis. This discussion is exposing the inherent illogic and inconsistency.

This isn’t intended as a trap though. Passions on the subject are running high: @halfon4harlowMP says, “You should cut off funding. Why should universities get funding when they’re harbouring this kind of antisemite.”

@halfon4harlowMP Even if she had that authority, I’m assuming that he doesn’t genuinely think that undermining the education of thousands of students would be an appropriate (or legal) response.

@halfon4harlowMP Moving on to what the government is doing to support graduate employment. @michelledonelan applaud Uni of Chester and others for information, advice and guidance support.

@halfon4harlowMP @michelledonelan Minister says she wants to see the expansion of degree apprenticeships. In particular a widening of the range of courses and a greater number of apprenticeships offered by Russell Group institutions.

@halfon4harlowMP @michelledonelan One MP starts to ask about problem unis face in expanding degree apprenticeships, in particular with respect to inadequate funding. Chair curtails that line of questioning and commends Minister for her record in supporting skills. 🤔

@halfon4harlowMP @michelledonelan @PutneyFleur asks about #PQA citing @AccessProjectUK view that it *looks* better for disadvantaged students, but actually wouldn’t be.

@halfon4harlowMP @michelledonelan @PutneyFleur @AccessProjectUK @michelledonelan encourages responses to the consultation: gov.uk/government/con…

She says she doesn’t want to do anything that inadvertently makes matters worse for disadvantaged students.

@halfon4harlowMP @michelledonelan @PutneyFleur @AccessProjectUK She cites research (which is by @gillwyness_econ) about unreliability of predicted grades and underprediction that disadvantages the disadvantaged. There are alternative views on this (see @markcorver and others).