A former director of the London School of Economics has used a House of Lords debate to attack the government¡¯s higher education policies, saying they risk ¡°chaotic consequences¡± including the closure of universities.

Labour peer Lord Giddens, who brought the debate on 13 October entitled Universities: Impact of Government Policy, said ministers appeared to be pursuing policies of ¡°ill-considered, untutored radicalism¡± that were not based in proper research and had ¡°imponderable outcomes¡±.

The academic, who advised former prime minister Tony Blair and is professor of sociology at LSE, said the reforms would leave England as a ¡°global outrider¡± with one of the lowest levels of public support for higher education in the industrialised world.

He said the ¡°ideological thrust¡± of the Browne Review should have been rejected and instead tuition fees only gradually raised alongside the maintenance of direct public support for universities, due to their ¡°massive¡± beneficial impact on society.

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¡°Universities are not a sort of supermarket where education can be chosen like a washing powder off the shelf. Students are not simply consumers, making day-to-day purchasing decisions. They will make a one-off decision,¡± he said.

¡°The whole apparatus of a marketplace in which you have consumer-led enterprise seems alien to what universities are and should be about.¡±

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He also said the impact of the immigration cap looked to be ¡°seriously damaging¡± to universities, not just in terms of student recruitment but also ¡°by denying the country the very creativity and academic innovation that are the lifeblood of the university system¡±.

Meanwhile, the coalition government¡¯s proposals to allow free competition for students with A-level grades of AAB and above received criticism from Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Brinton, who said the plans were a ¡°surprising element¡± of the White Paper.

¡°It seems to me that this may have a law of unintended consequences, with the possibility of bidding wars, and a real impact on recruitment for some of the middle-ranking universities. I hope that I am wrong,¡± she said.

simon.baker@tsleducation.com